Sun is to attend a meeting of the HP-led Real Time Java Working Group next month, in an attempt to sell the membership its Community Source Java licensing model. The Working Group was set up earlier this year with the intention of producing standards for real time/embedded Java systems, and is a potential source of a split in the Java standard. HP is a long-term critic of Sun's Java leadership, and has campaigned for some years to have the custodianship of the Java standard broadened out. The company has launched several initiatives which have in Sun's view come perilously close to splitting Java, but unlike Microsoft insists that it will stick to 100 per cent pure Java standards. Other members of the Working Group are largely from the real time and embedded arena, although Microsoft's membership must be an ominous sign for Sun. The new Community Source model is intended to go some way toward loosening Sun's control, within limits. It allows Java source code to be modified and shared without Sun's involvement, and companies only have to pay a fee to Sun for products sold. So you might say it's nearly Open Source. But is it nearly enough? ®