IBM's suggestion drew a sharp retort from Schwartz.

"I find it a little curious that IBM would oppose the GPL," Schwartz said. "I sure wouldn't want to see them turning their back on the open source community."

"This [licensing option] is what we and the community felt was the right answer," Schwartz said.

Sun showed video endorsements of the move from organizations such as Red Hat and the Free Software Foundation.

"The ASF has always welcomed code donations from Sun and other vendors. Many of our projects started off from such roots. But as the Harmony FAQ indicates, even though we welcome all contributions, it is up to the development community to see what makes sense, " said Jim Jagielski, Apache Public Relations Chair and ASF Board Member in an e-mail.