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Sun Moves Toward "Open Sourcing Java"

Posted by Hemos on from the will-it-even-matter dept.

jilles writes "I found this article at infoworld. Apparently some company executive of Sun was caught saying that SUN Microsystems is moving toward making its Java technology fully open-source."

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. I wish Java didn't mean two things by slim · · Score: 5

    I think Sun really did both Javas a disservice by giving them both the same name and marketing them as one thing.

    Java, the object oriented programming language that's like C++ done right, is a very nice language to program in and deserves to do well. Note that you can/could compile Java source into any target language you like, from x86 machine code to Java bytecode.

    Java, the portable bytecode and virtual machine technology is a very useful technology for the network age and is completely unrelated to the programming language. Note that you can/could compile any high level manguage you like to Java bytecode (especially if GCC supports it) from Eiffel to C to Ada to Java.

    So, we're left wondering which of these, if any, or both, Sun plans to "open source"...
    --

  2. How Sun can use the GPL on Java by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5
    Sun can indeed use the GPL on Java, or any other Open Source license. However, Open Source licenses may not, in themselves, prohibit forking. That would be a prohibition on modification or distribution of the modifications, which is specificaly excluded in the Open Source definition.

    What Sun can do is use a certification program and trademarks to enforce the Java definition. If you modify it, you can't call it Java(R) any longer, and you can't display their certification badge on your product's packaging and literature.

    Thanks

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.