It is hard to believe it has been10 years since Sun Microsystems of Santa Clara CA unveiled its original set of Java programming technologies right here at the Moscone Center.

Today, the same Moscone Center hosts JavaOne, the 10th annual Worldwide Developer Conference devoted largely to Java programmers, licensees, partners and customers.

While this years version of the event seems tame compared to other years, significant announcements were made, not the least of which was Suns move to "open source" several key Java Enterprise technologies. Specifically, Sun has released code for the popular Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.0 and Java System Enterprise Server Bus.

"It is good for business, it is good for the world," said Sun Microsystems President and chief operating officer, Jonathan Schwartz at his keynote speech here on Monday. This represents a departure for Sun as previously, they felt they had to maintain control over its programming language and software technologies. Earlier this year, Sun had "opened up" its source code for its OpenSolaris operating system.

Perhaps this was linked to the second major JavaOne announcement, which saw IBM and Sun Microsystems agree on a 10-year extension to their Java technology agreement. Under the Java agreement, which extends to 2016, IBM will continue to license and use Java technologies from Sun, including Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE), Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) and Java Card throughout its software products, including its middleware and web services portfolios.

In past years, IBM had wanted Sun to open up its software in order to take on the open source, Linux movement. Although the move to open source is a positive move, it is not immediately clear if it will result in a significant shift by developers to either Java or Solaris.

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