Sun Microsystems — the tech giant behind everything from SPARC servers to Solaris — is well known for having a solid portfolio of Open Source offerings under its belt, among others the OpenSolaris operating system, OpenOffice.org suite, and the Java software platform. Now details have emerged about the roadmap for one of Sun's latest Open Source endeavours, JavaFX.

According to Client Software Group VP Jeet Kaul, Sun is elbow deep in the process to Open Source JavaFX — the compiler and certain other elements have already been released under the GPL, and Sun is working quickly to Open Source as much of the remaining code as it can. The current undertaking involves "decoupling the dependencies" so that Open Source-able code can be released, allowing the JavaFX runtime to be "[put] out in the open over time." Though he did not offer specifics about the proprietary dependencies being "decoupled," Kaul did note that new specifications for JavaFX would be forthcoming in short order.

Also expected in the near future is the first stable release of the currently-beta JavaFX mobile platform — "by March" according to Kaul — while a tool for visual design will appear on the scene by the middle of the year. He also discussed the new FXD vector graphics format, codec support, dependence on the Swing widget toolkit, and other questions that had been raised about JavaFX. Perhaps of particular interest for Breaking News readers is the final question Kaul answered: Will there be Linux support? "Yes there will be Linux and OpenSolaris support. Check out Josh [Marinacci, JavaFX Senior Engineer]'s blog for more detail."

The full text of Kaul's post can be found on his blog at sun.com; the post that sparked his response, by software developer Osvaldo Doederlein, is available on Doederlein's java.net blog.