Sun Microsystems has had a prominent executive leave over Sun’s decision to offer Java via an open source paradigm, a Sun representative confirmed on Monday evening.Graham Hamilton, who had been a Sun Fellow for the Java platform team, has left the company. He had focused on use of Java in large-scale enterprises and in Web development. Also, he concentrated on attracting new developers to Java.Sun on November 13 announced intentions to offer Java via the GNU General Public License, after years of developers and others in the industry clamoring for an open source path for Java. Hamilton, who joined the Java team at Sun in 1995, was one of the designers of the Java Community Process for amending Java. He also was the lead architect for Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) releases 1.3, 1.4, and 5.0.But apparently, he did not see eye to eye with Sun’s open source move for Java.“Sun thanks Graham for his many contributions to the company and to Java technology,” Sun said in a prepared statement. “Graham is widely respected by Sun employees and developers around the world. While it is always sad to see an employee of his caliber depart, we wish him well in all his future endeavors.” James Gosling, Sun vice president and Fellow, will take over for Hamilton. Software Development