Posted on 11/13/2006 12:57:27 AM PST by HAL9000
Excerpt -
SUN MICROSYSTEMS will announce today that its Java language, contrary to the prediction of many pundits, will be offered as pure "Free Software" -as Richard Stallman would say "free as in freedom"- under a GPL version two licence.Ponytailed CEO Jonathan Schwartz will announce the ground-breaking move in a webcast to be held later at 9:30am Pacific Time. Both Java SE -used on desktops - and Java ME - used on mobile phones and PDAs- will be included. The server-side Java, or Java EE will be available both under the GPL version two licence and the same Common Development and Distribution Licence (CDDL) that Sun has used until now.
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(Excerpt) Read more at theinquirer.net ...
Sadly, it's probably too little too late.
Well we already knew Richard Stallman (www.stallman.org) was a moonbat leftist, now it appears the new "ponytailed CEO" of Sun Swartz may be too. I would have stuck solely with the CDDL license, as they did with Open Solaris, if I was going to allow others to make free copies and run with them in the first place. This wasn't even necessary in my opinion, the source code of Java was already available, this was just capitulating to Stallman's "community", something that could now result in legal Chinese versions of Java, etc. My belief is America will one day regret how we gave control of these industry satndards away to the rest of the world for less than a nickel, simply because they were begging for them.
Big Daddy, if you are alive....GPL is communism! Squawk! Squawk! Ping!
I do not do any webpage/website programming. Do I need to install Java on my computer if I just want to read webpages that use Java? Can anyone answer?
The article misses a point about Novell's mono project. It was in the past always aiming at the moving and patent-protected target that is .NET, but with the new MS/Novell cooperation it's possible that mono will now be kept even with Microsoft's own .NET releases.
Go Here and try to load one of the applets. If you can, then you have a Java interpreter. If not, then you likely do not.
(The above linked site is run by Sun Microsystems)
AmP
If the pages actually use Java, then you will need to install a java runtime environment (JRE) -- you don't need the entire Java development kit (JDK).
However, don't confuse "Java" with the misnomer "Javascript", which is just a scripting language built into the browser itself, and needs no additional downloads.
You only need to install the Java runtime.
Saw this in the WSJ today - don't know what the practical implications of this are however - Java is already a standard and easily available on all platforms - what does this mean in practical terms?
Why did they choose GPL? Because developers love it and understand it and are comfortable with it.
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Importance may be more relevant to developers than users....who get to use the stuff developers develop.....
If I had to guess? Sun thinks Java is a mature enough technology that they no longer want to deal with being in charge of enforcing standardization.
Thank you much. I have an two separate old versions of RTE on the computer which I just deleted. Going to reboot and install the newest one.
I guess it's all part of the long term chess match - maybe too early to tell if significant for us mere mortals or not. I do agree that Sun benefits by getting out from under the Java burden but then again that doesn't change my life any. I guess one point I was making was that Java wasn't exactly withering on the vine before this announcement - or maybe it was and we just didn't know it? Maybe we'll see more cool java apps in the future? Certainly lots of cool buzzwords to toss around - Sun, Java, GPL, OSS etc. etc. :)
Where's algored when you need him?
I never drink java after noon!
IBM cool to Sun's open-source Java plan
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IBM on Monday urged Sun Microsystems to participate in existing open-source Java projects at the Apache Foundation rather than start new ones.
Java creator Sun on Monday announced that it is releasing its Java desktop and mobile software under the General Public License (GPL) version 2.
The code will be implementations of standards called Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform Mobile Edition (Java ME). The code to Sun's Java server is available through the GPL now as well.
After years of internal debates and public calls from IBM to make Java open source, you would think that IBM would be overjoyed at the news.
Not so.
IBM on Monday issued a statement attributed to Rod Smith, vice president of emerging Internet technologies in the IBM Software Group, who penned the open letter in 2004 requesting Sun to make Java open source.
Smith said that IBM supports all open-source licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). But he noted that there are already two projects around open-source Java.
There is Harmony, a project in the incubator phase at Apache to build an open-source edition of Java SE. IBM joined the Harmony project shortly after it was launched in 2005.
Meanwhile, Motorola two weeks ago said that it will contribute code to start a Java ME project at Apache .
"In light of the Apache projects, we have discussed with Sun our strong belief that Sun should contribute their Java technologies to Apache rather than starting another open-source Java project, or at least make their contributions available under an 'Apache friendly' license to ensure the open-source Java community isn't fragmented and disenfranchised, instead Sun would be bringing the same benefits of OS (open-source) Java to this significant and growing open-source community," the statement said.
Sun chose the General Public License, rather than the Apache License, in part to ensure that there is compatibility with Linux, which is under the GPL, according to the company.
IBM is rather upset their investment in Harmony, devised to put pressure on Sun, will now probably end up going down the drain. Not to mention the forthcoming pressure on IBM to open source EVERYTHING, as Sun now seems intent on doing. End result, *nix/Java further fragments/forks, again leaving M$ as the only company offering a solid roadmap for their technology tree.
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