The Greatest Schism of All

I have recently voiced my dismay about EclipseZone running Netbeans ads.

While the criticism is, of course, justified, I may have been a little too hard on our friends over at EclipseZone.

After all, how would I, the community and the Eclipse Foundation react if Sun sponsored EclipseCon?

I am nothing if not reflective, introspective and contemplative; so here is how I imagine such a scenario would play out:

"The Eclipse Foundation director would announce the decision of Sun to sponsor EclipseCon on his blog. He would welcome Sun with open arms and reaffirm the respect we have for Netbeans and how competition has been healthy and good for both camps.

A Sun evangelist, most likely someone from Great Britain, would then post a comment on the director's blog thanking him for his kind words.

The story then gets picked up by ZDNet, where Drama lives. One can expect an over-the-top headline like 'Sun has made a major step toward healing the schism in the Java community, which is the biggest schism that humanity has seen since the schism of 1054."

It will be one big love fest.

Fast forward a week or two...

We wake up one day and we read some earth-shattering news that some random guy from Sioux City, Iowa has just switched back to Eclipse after trying the 3.3M5a milestone, or some single mother from Grand Rapids, Michigan just tried Matisse and liked what she saw.

At which point, bloggers on Planet Eclipse and Planet Netbeans pick up the groundbreaking stories and start interpreting those "honest evaluations". Enter EclipseZone with one of their inflammatory, yet well-intentioned, posts and we are back to square one.

The love fest is over."

Sounds about right? :)