Simon Phipps amazed Google dancing around Java compatibility

At his personal blog Webmink, Sun's chief open source officer, Simon Phipps, complained Sunday that Google is not supporting all Java classes in its App Engine. He even linked to Google's list of supported classes.

The reaction was not all that he had hoped. (This is Phipps at FOSS India in 2007.)

Even on his own blog, some pushed back, saying Google was not changing the specs, just specifying which classes would be hosted on its App Engine. Others said his demands for open source purity were counterproductive.

Over at Slashdot, some commenters called Sun jealous of Google's success, but others agreed with Phipps, saying Google "sandboxxed" Java and specifically questioning the lack of support for threads.

I have to wonder whether this is indeed a product of Sun's weakness. Picking-and-choosing from within a standard library is most prevalent when the company which created that library is too weak to object in a meaningful way. Notice this complaint does not appear on Phipps' Sun blog.

It's no longer a question of whether Google's actions weaken Sun. They seem to me to weaken Java. At the end of the day the code means more than its creator.

What say y'all?