Sun Open Sources Java Under GPL

prostoalex writes "The embargo is off, and Associated Press is reporting on Sun releasing Java under GPL. Sun is hoping that this step will attract more developers, as well as extend the lifespan of Java. The article notes that this is 'one of the largest additions of computer code to the open-source community', and that Java is currently being run on something like 3.8 Billion devices worldwide." From the article: "Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said the company hopes to turn more developers into Java programmers, who may then create additional software to support Sun products. 'The open-sourcing of this really means more — more richness of offerings, more capability, more applications that consumers will get to use,' Green said. 'The platform itself will become a place for innovation.' All the Java source code is expected to be released by March 2007, Green said. The move covers all Java technology, which includes software that runs on handheld devices, personal computers and servers."

Comments

Holy Shit!

[MostAwesomeDude]

Well, on a more practical note, this means that within a few months, I should be seeing a real, complete, working JRE sitting in the main repositories for Debian and Ubuntu. Sweet. We no longer have to go and fetch it ourselves or experiment with incomplete toolkits.

For the ideologues, knowing that there's one less piece of non-free software on your system is a real comfort. For me, personally, all that apparently remains are ATI drivers and Flash Player.

Yay!

More articles

[LarsWestergren]

Some more articles I have found, with some substance to them:
InfoQ, also mentions Glassfish.
eWeek.

There is also going to be a official webcast about this by Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green 9.30 a.m. PT.

In related news, apparently Project Looking Glass, the 3d desktop, is likely to be included in the Ubuntu Feisty release.

Re:Shouldn't it have been LGPL?

[milton.john]

From what I have read, it seems that Java will be dual-licenced, so anyone that do not feel good about GPL can use commercial licence. It seems like a win-win situation to me...

Re:Shouldn't it have been LGPL?

[sveinungkv]

Java will have the same the same exception to GPL for its classlib as GNU Classpath, so the GPL will not have any effect on code running in the JVM. (It has even fewer restrictions than the LGPL that forces derived works to allow reverse engineering)

Re:bravo

[jareth-0205]

With this step, SUN has became the largest commercial contributor to the free and open source software pool. OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris, now JAVA - well, kudos!

NFS... Netbeans... JXTA...

Sun has been the biggest commercial contributor to Open Source for some time now... this just makes it even more so.

Re:Debian vs. Mozilla

[A beautiful mind]

You've got it wrong. The "shoddy debian patches" were just an excuse mentioned by the Mozilla Corporation, but they weren't the dealbreaker - they could have been negotiated. The dealbreaker were the images (their license is not free), because either debian includes them and then it violates its own standards (DFSG), or doesn't include them and then violates Mozilla's trademark conditions they set forward or they change the name of the package. They went for the latter and I'm 100% supportive of that decision.

I got to the point that if I could, I would use something else than Firefox. Only that I need a few extensions + the resize image capability. I don't like the recent direction Firefox is heading.

My own symphathy goes unreservedly to Debian, as a software developer I know what a total pain stupid corporate policies are to deal with.