[picture the sound of one big huge SNIP] stefano, first of all, my apologies for mispelling your name, I have a very bad memory for names. I was very surprised by the calm and polite tone of your letter and it got me thinking that you boys really did not know what war is and, as you claimed, maybe it was better this way... my apologies, now that I think about it, you are probably right. well then, I will change my pitch and I am sure the italian in you will appreciate this parallel. Imagine for a second that you are a Roman emperor, better yet a Roman senator, let's leave the role of the emperor to Brian (;-). You are sitting there and Rome is big, Rome is powerful, Rome is respected. You pride yourself in the "pax romana", that powerful new notion, that really made Europe, that one notion that under a ruler, a new geo political reality of unification can happen. It is true, your pax has propagated to the far reaches of your world and you have laid a ground work that is to last many centuries. As a small outfit on the far boarder of the empire we once asked to join the roman empire, we brought our riches, our territories our soldiers and our city to your senators. Your senators voted unanimously yes... it was overrulled. From the far reaches of the empire it seemed as if something was rotten in the empire;0). Word on the battle fields is that the empire isn't that strong. Word has it that the new barbarians, the commercial entities, are running amock and causing fear and damage on the boarders. Ever read "asterix"? we were fighting it alone, with a magic potion. We see it every day, our city is besieged by barbarians all the time! Rome is but a distant ideal and the legions of Rome and their softness make us sad, their ideals are soft, their tactics are soft and even their politics are soft. Out here it is war and war is our daily lot. Barbarians are at the gate, maybe already in, and you refuse to see it. When you talk to us about licenses and open source it feels to us like you are this big fat senator, coming down in his "portachair" and giving us lessons, when what is coming is all too clear to us... This arrogance from Rome is the only thing that keeps us nordics, french, russians on our toes and doubting about the mightness of Rome. Your talks sound hollow and your tactics outdated, you have grown soft in your comfortable roman world of pax romana... It is an illusion we stopped believing in some month ago... we fight it alone thank you, respect is too much to ask from us ... it will help if I laid it clearly 1- Don't assume everyone wants to join the "pax apache", word on the street is your web server is dead 2- Integrate the hypothesis that you are peaking politically in your strategic equations <g> it will enable you to do a "harry seldon" thing and save the Foundation from many years of barbarian domination 3- Even your leaders say the server is dead.... (JavaOne, no names ;-) we believe in Catalina, but there are other players, you will see competition, get ready and you will win... let it run and you will die... 4- It's a 80/20 thing, the 80 percent you achieved is amazing don't assume you have nuked the field. We will tell you that the fact is that the WEB OS is a reality that you are far from grasping. The 20 left even in your domain is tough... Listen I need to go to ice-hockey tomorrow morning 6am so I won't go on much longer... but I look forward to seeing Federico on Monday at Sun and hearing that all in fine in the Empire, I strongly believe you have all the talent you need. So stay solid and don't let appearances lead you astray. The Java field is a difficult one. The Open Source java field is even more of a real puzzle. And the WebOS won't appear over night, it is an evolutionary thing. Myself and others in our organization, as well as others in the java field (heard of Resin?) are pursuing this thing and we see it all too clearly. There are no hard feeling towards Rome as we are grateful and in awe of what it has achieved. Finally, don't spread yourselves too thin... it was the demise of every great army. Keep the project coherent it doesn't look this way today as your technological vision is soft and blurred. GET IT IN FOCUS!!!!!!!. Peace love and good code, kind regards marc fleury
