Java status (was: Re: Wine c.f. Mono)

[Linus Walleij <triad df lth se>]

On Sun, 1 Jan 2006, Andy Burns wrote:

> > Is Java encumbered by patents, really? Isn't it just the copyrighted 
> > reference implementation and testsuite that is the crux?
>
> You're right, I've never heard of Sun making any threats about 3rd party
> implementation, just binary distribution and limitations on source access.

While we're talking about it, does anyone know:

As far as I understood, IBM (and others) approached Sun to have them Open 
Source their reference implementation of Java. The answer was "no", to 
which IBM et al responded by throwing developers at libgcj, classpath and 
friends so they really started to catch up.

Was this how the rapid development of libgcj and friends came about or was 
it a "natural process" i.e som critical momentum or so?

Linus