"Eclipse welcomes the open dialogue from Sun and appreciates the recognition of Eclipse that it provides. We believe that working together with Sun and others in the Java community to make sure that we all address "the big picture" is a very positive approach.

Sun has made several good points in its letter and we openly invite them to continue the positive, forward-looking discussions with Eclipse that have been underway for several months.

To be clear, the invitation remains open for Sun to join Eclipse at the Board of Directors level. This invitation -- extended unanimously by the Eclipse Stewards -- does not require Sun to abandon or in any way deprecate the NetBeans platform. It does ask Sun to actively participate in the new Eclipse Foundation and to take development leadership of one or more Eclipse Projects (as is asked of every other Strategic Developer). That said, Sun is invited to join Eclipse at any level: Strategic Developer, Strategic Consumer or Add-in Provider.

The new independent Eclipse Foundation looks forward to working with Sun, and the entire Java community, to make Java the preeminent development platform in the world."

Mike Taylor
Chair, Eclipse Marketing Committee