The organisation is expected to formally announce its independence from founder IBM at the EclipseCon conference next week, a move that will clear the way for a group of technology providers, and IBM rivals, to join the Eclipse board and help decide its direction.
It's a major turning point for Eclipse that could greatly expand its clout. "IBM will lose a whole lot of power that they had in the old organisation," said David Orme, the leader of an Eclipse project and the chief architect at tools company Advanced Systems Concepts. "(Eclipse) was always intended to become something bigger than IBM. For this to happen, IBM had to give up control."
Eclipse was founded in November 2001 with a $40m (£22.6m) donation from IBM. Since then, the group has grown to about 50 members and given rise to a popular Java development tool platform -- also known as Eclipse -- that allows developers to mix and match different types of tools in a single programming application. Before software like Eclipse became prevalent, it was difficult, if not impossible, for many Java tools to work together.
But the industry perception that IBM dominated the setting of Eclipse's agenda -- mostly using it to push sales of its own Java software -- has kept Java inventor Sun Microsystems from joining the organisation.
Big Blue executives have dismissed the suggestion that the name Eclipse was chosen as a not-so-subtle allusion to overcoming rival Sun. Sun requested a name change in its failed attempt to join the organisation. "Some companies... opposed to IBM just could not support Eclipse because of the IBM connection," said James Governor, an analyst at RedMonk.
Now, as Eclipse assumes independent status, many makers of development tools will be closely watching the project and may join the effort, since it has become influential in setting industry direction on many Java-related development issues.
"As Eclipse splits out from IBM, it helps from a partnership perspective," said Thomas Murphy, an analyst at research firm Meta Group. "The question is, can they really build on the community?"
Gaining developer interest is a critical goal for Java software providers, because it helps generate sales of pricier software to run Java applications and provides a bulwark against Microsoft's competing tools and Windows-based software.
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