The core platform encompasses the Standard Edition of Java, and it will be offered via an open source format under an OSI (Open Source Initiative)-approved license, likely the same one used for Sun's open source Solaris OS. Sun officials, including Rich Green (http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/23/HNgreenqa_1.html) , Sun executive vice president for software, have talked about Java being offered via open source in stages later this year and into 2007. Parts of it, such as the Java Enterprise Edition, already are available via open source, with the GlassFish application server constituting the open source enterprise variant.

Under pressure from the community at large, Sun officials announced at the JavaOne conference in May, also in San Francisco, that Java would be made open source. But they did not provide a specific time frame.

Schwartz, who said he is in his 184th day as CEO since taking over for Scott McNealy, stood atop his open source soapbox to tout Sun's ongoing open source efforts.

"We announced about a year-and-a-half we were open-sourcing Solaris and making it freely available and a strong trend emerged," Schwartz said. Sun, he said, crossed the 6 million-license barrier for Solaris about two to three weeks ago; 70 percent of Solaris licenses are now deployed on computers from rivals Dell, HP, and IBM, he said.

"Frankly, our relationship with those three vendors has been transformed. They are now channel partners for us," with Sun able to deliver Solaris support for those customers, Schwartz said.