NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Sun Microsystems added 2 cents to $5.29 in early action on Monday after the company said it's releasing its implementations of Java technology as free software ...

With just over one month to Java 8's release, Java platform Chief Architect Mark Reinhold has proposed dropping Stripped Implementations in order to maintain backward compatibility.

Sun's work with Apache software stems from its desire to propel Java forward through a community-driven effort, since that's what has made the technology what it is today, McNealy said.