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Will Sun's Java Go Open Source?

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-a-peek dept.

Ritalin16 writes "CNet report that Sun Microsystems wants to send Java closer to the open-source world, yet keep it safe from harm. "Project Peabody" adds two licenses that make it easier for outsiders to see the code. But Sun stops short of embracing open-source. Sun's licensing practices for Java are closely watched. Proponents of making Java open-source argue that a different license and development process will help accelerate usage of Java, which faces ongoing competition from Web open-source scripting tools, such as PHP, and Microsoft's .Net line of tools."

5 of 519 comments (clear)

  1. off-topic-a-roony by aendeuryu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hey, is anybody using the gnu java compiler much? How's the performance on java programs made with it? Obviously there'd be some positive side effects, but exactly how much could the community benefit from having Sun's compiler open-sourced?

    1. Re:off-topic-a-roony by iamacat · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The community would benifit from having a Open Source java implimentation

      Well, there are already at least a couple - Kaffe and GCJ, why not just contribute? Sun already did the hard part - theoretical research, design, marketing - for free. Actual coding of well-researched projects is not that difficult. You can even study Sun's source code to learn general concepts for your own project as opposed to just "lifting" it.

      See, there is no shortage of C/C++ compilers and nobody is grumbling about AT&T not releasing their stuff under GPL.

      ...because it would allow distributions to distribute java runtime enviroments...

      SUSE and gentoo already do, I would guess someone (Debian?) made their own decision not to ship Java rather than being disallowed by Sun.

      Like you could begin writing Java-based GUI applications and then distibute them yourself without requiring your audiance to agree to restrictive licenses and download and install Java on their own.

      Enjoy a license-free download! And the winner is:

      Probably a bit to late for all that, unfortunately. Sun had it's chance and now Linux has managed code in the form of Mono (open source .NET implimentation) and C#. So sun has much more stiffer compitition then it would of had in the OSS world if they released a java runtime enviroment without restrictive licenses a few years ago.

      Do you mean Microsoft released their own .Net implementation under GPL?? I would say Java platform is far more open than MS stuff. Gnome developers just have some unexplainable love for Windows.Forms as opposed to Swing.

  2. No, they want to keep their integrity. by CompotatoJ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Sun has elected not to use an open-source license at this time because its commercial customers are concerned with "forking," or the creation of incompatible editions of the base Java software" Currently, Java seems to be close to, if not the lead in cross-compatibility. They do not seem like they want to lose their integrity as a stable cross-platform language.

    1. Re:No, they want to keep their integrity. by killjoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

      MS did fork java, they called it C# and .NET.

      Ms no longer cares about java now that they have their own version of it.

      --
      evil is as evil does
  3. Re:Mono viability by lupus-slash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Given than mono can run basically the same java programs as the free java VMs (since they all use GNU classpath and the lib implementation is the limiting factor) and it runs many .net programs out of the box, mono is much more viable than any free software java implementation.