From the "Yes We Can Get Along' files:

IBM's embrace of Oracle's OpenJDK is a good thing for a lot of people in the Java community. Three years ago, I wrote about Red Hat joining the OpenJDK effort (then under the leadership of Sun) at the time Sun was hopeful that IBM would join too, but they didn't until this week.

So now we've got, Oracle, IBM and Red Hat all on the same basic page when it comes to Java and its open source implementation.

"We are pleased to see IBM joining Oracle on the OpenJDK," Mark Little, Sr. Director of Engineering, Middleware, Red Hat and JCP Executive Committee member said in an email statement that Red Hat sent me. "When industry leaders are collaborating and working together in a community versus fracturing it and going their own way, customers will benefit."



Little added that IBM's commitment to open source development for OpenJDK is consistent with Red Hat's philosophy and they are happy to support it. Considering that Red Hat has already been at the OpenJDK table for three years, Little's comments don't surprise me.