The fear of a fork is a little on the paranoid side. If somebody decides to fork Java and create an incompatible version they cannot call it Java. The trademark is not being released.

Very good article. Just two comments:

1. The latest JDK's are extremely stable and well tested. They are only difficult to use if you rely on an application server or IDE to support the latest features.

2. Your article linked to the RFE's instead of the bugs. The correct link is:
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/top25_bugs.do

Another waste of an article. Its nonsense, and it just gives these boring so called programmers something to talk about when their chatting about their precious little java code. Fling the big words like "Open Source" along with Java and maybe even more unknowning people will start to use it, and even pay for a class, buy one of the 1000 books written in 50 different languages too.

This week at LinuxWorld Laurie Tolson gave reporters an update on the planned release of Java and its associated tools under an open source license. By the end of the year, javac and the hot spot compiler will be released. The precise license details haven't yet been announced yet - that is the part of the equation they are wrestling with the most since there are components within the JDK that aren't theirs to open source. Politics and licenses aside, let us look at what this means for the humble Java developer, the troops in the trenches churning out code daily.