Jeff Kottke, a Java engineer at Dairyland Healthcare Solutions Inc. in Glenwood, Minn., welcomed the idea. "It seems like open source groups are able to put out better code that works faster and cleaner," he said.

But opinions varied widely. Business application developers weren't particularly excited about the plan because they write applications to run on JVM and have no interest in working on the underlying code. Another developer, however, said open-sourcing the code may help application integration where Java is used. Still another said that by making Java open source, it becomes less tied to Sun's future.

Sun seems particularly interested in getting developers to write for mobile applications, where it already has substantial adoption. Indeed, Edward Zander, CEO of Motorola Inc., which relies heavily on Java for its mobile platforms and appeared with Schwartz Tuesday at the conference, urged developers to continue to develop for mobile platform. He echoed the need to make sure that Java "stays unified" for the mobile form.

Chris Fogel, a developer who builds Java-based tools used internally by a mobile wireless company, said open source will lead to more people working on the code and buy-in from a larger community. Fogel and others point out that Java already has a community development process in place. But it won't be clear how any open-source move will affect development "until it's actually out in the community. That's when you really find out, he said.