"A lot of work that I've done could be relegated to the dust bin of history," Marshall said. But Marshall is not disappointed. "I don't think that personal glory is the ultimate goal of free software," he said. The Classpath project may be able to fill in some gaps on any class libraries that Sun cannot open because it does not own them, he added.

An open source Java will bring new developers to the platform, said Dalibor Topic, a lead developer on the project, which involves development of a free Java virtual machine.

"I think it greatly boosts the perception of Java as a managed runtime technology in circles that wouldn't have considered Java as easily," because of the "Java trap," Topic said. The Java trap has involved an issue in which distribution of free software containing Java was hindered by Java's previous licensing terms.

With open source Java, developers who did not have the opportunity to look at the source code now can do so, noted Topic, of Saarbrucken, Germany.

By having Java available under the GPL, "it makes it possible to take your virtual machine and port it and include code from other applications that are open source or under the GPL," Topic said. Code can be exchanged with other projects, he added.