Jens Eckels talks about the impact Open source Java will have on Eclipse and its users. He says that Sun missed a golden opportunity to be in the running. “If Java had been made available in 2003 or 2004, it may have been news for those who now swear by Eclipse. But today, with so many large companies like IBM pushing the Eclipse platform, and Classpath/Harmony projects at almost 95% compliance with Java, it seems as though all three projects will be mostly unaffected by the move and continue to evolve independently.”

According to Eckels, Sun Microsystems saw improvement in productivity and development as regards JDK when Eclipse came onto the scene. Nevertheless, he asks, “If and when Sun finally makes Java available, does it mean anything to ‘Eclipsers’ anymore?”