Retiring Mustang & Dolphin and Java Open Sourcing

I can hardly let yesterdays' announcement pass, considering the well orchestrated announcement that the Java platform is accelerating towards the open source model. I am still conflicted as to the tangible benefits of this move, however it is interesting to see that in general the open source community seems supportive of the staged approached to open sourcing the entire platform - notably components like the HotSpot VM will be the first to be exposed and considering the 10+ years of development behind the platform, breaking down the open sourcing effort into smaller pieces seems a more prudent approach. Danny Coward and Mark Reinhold will remain the blogs to watch as the process continues, and I'll be keeping an eye on their entries for all the latest developments. The demise of Mustang and Dolphin? That, I think is a shame - project names for release goals are something I have always enjoyed, as it often encapsulates theme, or perhaps a good illustration about what the release is all about. There have been some great names too- Kestrel (anyone remember the commemorative placards with the wrong spelling), Ladybird (the Irish version of Ladybug) and my favorite, Merlin. You can see a complete list here. Most of all, Mustang represented a significant change in allowing developer insight into early stages of J2SE platforms development; more that any release before it. Dolphin or now what will be called JDK 7 offers an order of magnitude greater exposure, especially in terms of community participation. I think it is both an exciting and interesting time to see how the dynamics of how the Java platform evolution will shift in this next release. How will this new model be judged a success - faster turn around of new platform versions, better features even great stability or scalability ? Of course, I cannot predict which, but like everyone else I now have the option of participating from the start.