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Ubunted
November 8th, 2006, 05:15 AM
http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml;?articleId=193600331

I SO did not expect that.

codypumper
November 8th, 2006, 05:17 AM
"No, how can they do this! Proprietary is the way to go... stupid Sun..."

Good job Sun!

DoctorMO
November 8th, 2006, 05:19 AM
Sun shines on open source.

argie
November 8th, 2006, 08:01 AM
It's always nice to hear about something going Open Source, but, what does this mean for us?

Can the Sun JRE now be included by default in Ubuntu?

GameManK
November 8th, 2006, 08:11 AM
That's awesome! I'm really surprised they're using the GPL and not their own license.

luca.b
November 8th, 2006, 08:50 AM
Call me skeptical, but I'll believe that when I see an official announcement.

Rhapsody
November 8th, 2006, 09:48 AM
I really thought Java would be under the CDDL, since Sun seems wary of the GPL (why else would you make the CDDL rather than using the LGPL?) but this is the second bit of good yet surprising news I've got today (the Democrats being poised to take the Senate is the other). I do wonder if it'll be 'version 2' or 'version 2 or later' though. It's a big difference these days.

I don't use Java much anyway though, I'd be more interested if Adobe said Flash Player would be under a free software licence.

Magnes
November 8th, 2006, 10:11 AM
Stop politics.
I think GPLed Java will be more popular.

Shin_Gouki2501
November 8th, 2006, 12:33 PM
-> Can the Sun JRE now be included by default in Ubuntu?
answer?
i think yes what u guys think?
not only JRE, JDK also!

glotz
November 8th, 2006, 12:45 PM
Call me skeptical, but I'll believe that when I see an official announcement.
Ditto!

MaximB
November 8th, 2006, 02:24 PM
it's not so surprising for me as SUN is in favor of an open source , even parts of their OS solaries is an open source.
SUN is one of my favorite companies they really support open source.

kuja
November 8th, 2006, 03:51 PM
-> Can the Sun JRE now be included by default in Ubuntu?
answer?
i think yes what u guys think?
not only JRE, JDK also!
It's currently in the multiverse repository, the packages are sun-java5-bin, sun-java5-jdk, sunjava5-jre, etc.

I'll believe this whole deal when I see Sun's press release..

TheRingmaster
November 8th, 2006, 03:56 PM
that is wonderful news. hopefully the zfs file system will come over as well.

this could also answer some questions: Ubuntu maker to distribute Sun's Java :: OSDir.com :: Open Source, Linux News & Software (http://osdir.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9480)

Lord Illidan
November 8th, 2006, 04:12 PM
I'd wait for the press release, but yes, good news.

ago
November 8th, 2006, 04:19 PM
It should have come 3 years ago... But better late than never. A very welcome move. I think it will use a dual license.

bastiegast
November 8th, 2006, 07:17 PM
And what does this mean for GNU GCJ?

kuja
November 8th, 2006, 07:29 PM
Probably nothing, bastiegast.

Mathiasdm
November 8th, 2006, 07:44 PM
I'm going to go against the current here, for a moment.

It might be a good thing, the GPL for Java.
Then again, it might be bad as well (I honestly don't like the idea of Java forks popping up everywhere).

Shin_Gouki2501
November 8th, 2006, 07:46 PM
hu why not , in certain areas java software rocks!Also u have low platform dependency, thats nice!
Seems u all are not happy about that? IMO its great!

stokedfish
November 13th, 2006, 01:31 PM
Thank you Sun!

shining
November 13th, 2006, 01:43 PM
I'm very confused about Sun Java.
The whole source code was already available, but under too restrictive licenses (JRL and SCSL) that are not considered open source?
And that's why free alternatives have been developed? Or did these alternatives begin when no source code was available?

Nite_Hawk
November 13th, 2006, 03:10 PM
I'm going to go against the current here, for a moment.

It might be a good thing, the GPL for Java.
Then again, it might be bad as well (I honestly don't like the idea of Java forks popping up everywhere).

Given the number of incompatible Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, C, C++, etc ports floating around, I think we'll probably be ok. :)

Nite_Hawk

Anthem
November 13th, 2006, 08:10 PM
I'm very confused about Sun Java.
The whole source code was already available, but under too restrictive licenses (JRL and SCSL) that are not considered open source? And that's why free alternatives have been developed? Or did these alternatives begin when no source code was available?
A little of both.

The free alternatives will now either become a lot better (like GCJ) or just cease to exist.

It's a very good day for Free Software.

Shin_Gouki2501
November 13th, 2006, 08:16 PM
imo its a good thing since many "free" java based project now are able to work with the "source", go for it sun :)
wbr Shin Gouki

Jeff Johnston
November 14th, 2006, 01:32 AM
This is interesting:

If you look closely at the announcement, you'll see that the actual license being used is "GPL2 with Classpath Exemption." By their own admission, this essentially is the same as placing the class libraries under the Lesser or Library GPL (LGPL.) This means that non-GPL licensed applications (such as Apache, BSD, Mozilla or even commercial applications) can access the J2SE class libraries without being required to be GPL compliant. This is an important point, because otherwise the "virality" of the GPL license would apply to software that required the J2SE libraries. In summary, the only time the GPL kicks in is if you want to modify the compiler, runtime or libraries themselves.

I was wondering how this was going to work with commercial applications. This is based on this article:

http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2006111302326OSLLDV

As a long time Java developer I am very excited about Java being GPL'd. What a lot of people do not realize is the full stack of applications that you get now that Java is open source. Java developers have a lot invested in open source but because of the non-free nature of Java itself this has largely been ignored by people that like Linux. All that changes now. Granted though most of the really cool Java things I would name deal mostly with server apps, but that is just because that is mostly what I work with. However, what GUI development I have done I will say that client applications are great if done right. There is a stigma that Java is slow and ugly, but that is based on old opinions that no longer are relevant...or at least they do not have to be. For those sketical I hope us Java developers can help change your mind.

I'm really excited because I really want to help more in open source, and specifically as it pertains to Linux and now I can! Plus I get to bring all my tools with me :), and to be honest that has been the biggest thing stopping me from coding open source applications on Linux. For sure it will be interesting to see how Java is chosen to be used in Linux!