The previous post spawned a lot of discussion, a lot of which was surprisingly technical and on-topic. But after talking with some people I realized that OpenJDK can do a lot just on its own. Here’s my wishlist:

OpenJDK->OpenVM plan

1. Split up source distribution into OpenVM core, place things like Swing into separate source project
2. OS-specific integration in core; e.g. javax.unix namespace (e.g. Unix domain sockets), javax.windows (similar to python-win32), javax.osx; and allow interested operating system vendors to innovate there. The operating system does matter.
3. Commit to longer-term VM improvements necessary to allow compilation of C# into extended JVM bytecode (not CIL)
4. Commit to VM improvements necessary to make Jython/JRuby work well
5. Stay on top of Linux distribution integration, make sure packagers aren’t carrying patches (this includes JSR 277 work)
6. Together with the above, branding as OpenVM or something similar to express willingness to be more than just the old “Java” which was JVM+Java language+Swing