Large companies committed to Java, such as SAP, SAS Institute and Sybase, are adopting Eclipse for their internal development, as are many smaller companies that create add-ons designed to plug into the tool framework. Novell last week joined Eclipse, and is committed to using the Eclipse integrated development environment, or IDE.
The composition of the group's new board of directors -- which could be named by next week -- will also be closely watched, because the board can dictate how the Eclipse software evolves beyond its roots as an IBM-founded project.
Under its new bylaws, Eclipse will have different membership levels, including both commercial and free participation for individuals and other open-source projects. The board will be made up of a relatively small number of "strategic contributors" willing to invest significant resources to Eclipse -- as high as $250,000 and eight programmers, according to Skip McGaughey, the chairman of Eclipse.
An important technical question is whether the Eclipse software will remain fairly simple -- a quality much favoured by developers -- or begin to add complexity as more companies get involved in its design, said Meta Group's Murphy. "Does (the software base) stay basic, or will it, because all these other people are driving it, start to bloat?" he said.
Keeping a close watch
Java developers aren't the only ones keeping tabs on Eclipse's transformation.
Sun, which rebuffed an invitation to join Eclipse last month, reopened internal discussions about joining the organisation during the past few weeks, according to the company. While it's still unclear whether Sun will join, the software and hardware maker is closely monitoring which other companies take Eclipse board seats and is weighing its options, according to a Sun representative.
The rapid escalation of Eclipse during the past two years has provided stiff competition to Sun's own NetBeans open-source Java development tools initiative. The NetBeans and Eclipse software have significant technical differences, notably the method for creating user interfaces for various operating systems and the system for incorporating add-on components into the programming tools.
Executives at Sun have also complained of IBM's influence within Eclipse. The Eclipse software underlies IBM's entire tool strategy.
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