blogs.zdnet.com — It's official: Sun is releasing its implementations of Java technology as free software under the GNU General Public License. Richard Stallman, creator of the GPL and founder of the Free Software Foundation, will endorse the move by video at a press conference Monday morning. Java SE, ME, and EE will all be available under GPLv2, the same as Linux.
Nov 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
colinmNov 13, 2006
It's available for Linux, but isn't GPLed:<a class="user" href="http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/eula/flashplayer.html">http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/eula/flashplayer.html</a>
rootdownNov 14, 2006
so kevin mitnick stole java code back in the day, spent a lot of time in jail with no trial for it and now is open source. whack.
lobsterNov 14, 2006
Sun are to be commended. They have won a lot of friends with this move. The java programs I have run are always polished and reliable. Some of the best ideas from .NET (a Java clone without any advantages) will now be incorporated across OS divides.I am thinking quite seriously of moving our Tmxxine open source time travel bootstrapping language to Java. I am sure many others will be moving from C and C++ to Java.The Sun shines.
ricreeNov 14, 2006
@TedTschoppSorry if I gave the impression that I thought it was purely compiled. What I meant to say was that while I was sure that a compiled language would not be effected, I wasn't certain about a language like Java that is not.
zizaNov 14, 2006
I'd rather migrate to D from C/C++. Walter Bright announced that he would release D 1.0 at Jan 1st 2007.www.digitalmars.com/d/
ldogNov 14, 2006
@williamdyer:J2ME is non-existant using gnuclasspath.If there had been a GPL MIDP and CDC implementation, I would have loved to port it over to my Nokia770 tablet.Hopefully this move by Sun improves the situation.Unfortunately it won't change the stranglehold that the d**kh**ds at ARM keep on the Jazelle(java hardware accleration) specs.
williamdyerNov 15, 2006
You are correct that it would be tedious to create a true CDC clone out of Classpath. However, a precompiled, statically linked Java application looks like it could be smaller, and have a faster startup time than the same application running on a CDC runtime.If your goal is CDC application compatibility or easy portability, it should be OK.Many, maybe most, MIDP applications need significant porting effort from one MIDP handset to another, so I think it is acceptable to create a mobile Java platform that is not 100% MIDP - since MIDP implementations are hardly ever 100% compatible or even correct according to the specs.