Eclipse is Rational Application Developer "Lite" By open-sourcing it, IBM were able to attract a lot of developers to strengthen the foundation of their flagship developer product at no cost to themselves (and the extras in RAD are very much *not* open-source, or free). Plus, a large user-base of existing eclipse users makes the learning curve for RAD very shallow - another useful selling point.
As always, follow the money. Someone, somewhere, is *always* profiting from any "free" product. On 24 November 2010 19:57, Chris Adamson <invalidn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Oh come on, Vince, don't play dumb. I'm saying that they're developed > and given away free in order to support the *Java* platform, for > webapps, mobile, and desktop. That's obviously in Sun/Oracle's self- > interest, which explains why they offer NetBeans. With Eclipse, I > think there was an effort to legitimize and evangelize an Eclipse > application platform, written in Java but using SWT and other add-on > technologies from the Eclipse Foundation (such as OSGi). > > --Chris > > On Nov 24, 2:59 am, "Vince O'Sullivan" <vjosulli...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Nov 23, 7:58 pm, Chris Adamson <invalidn...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Anyways, I get the sense that IDEs have become strategic assets > essential to the well being of specific platforms, and are usually developed > by those platforms' sponsors and usually given away for free to foster > development for that platform. IDEA, as independent pay-ware, is something > of an anachronism here. > > > > You're saying that Eclipse and NetBeans are given away free for the > > strategic purpose of promoting Windows, Unix and Apple platforms by > > the sponsors of those platforms? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<javaposse%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- Kevin Wright mail / gtalk / msn : kev.lee.wri...@gmail.com pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright twitter: @thecoda -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
