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Posted on 12/22/2006 8:41:33 AM PST by N3WBI3
From Slashdot
"You can now get GPLed JVM sources from Sun. Everyone seemed to be expecting the desktop version (J2SE) but J2ME has been released first. It looks to be buildable for Linux x86, MIPS, and ARM platforms. Sun now calls it 'phoneME.' Enjoy."
From Sun (https://phoneme.dev.java.net/downloads_page.html)
"The phoneME project code is released under the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2). Before downloading phoneME software, you should become familiar with the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2).
Please note: phoneME software may contain crypto binaries/source. Certain countries restrict the redistribution of high key-strength crypto. If you live in one of these countries, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are complying with your country's laws in this area."
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Agreed, I'd prefer they didn't do this.
Altho I'm not sure how much it matters, in the long run.
Sun was pushed into this, as Stallman's free software vision begins to infect the US companies it was originally aimed against. And nature will just continue taking it's course in the free software world, as the number of fragments and forks and license incompatibilities continue to grow, IBM just smiles and hands over a sevice level agreement for you to sign.
Sun was not pushed into this in any way shape or form they very easily could have used the CDDL or kept it closed source, java was in no way being hurt by not having an open license.
A couple thoughts. First, it's not as though Java doesn't have variants already. There are projects like GCJ and Kaffe which attempt to be FSF Java versions and there are other commercial ones like Microsoft's Visual J++/J# and IBM's Blackdown.
Secondly, it fosters competition which is good. May the best JDK win! Hopefully, people will take the language/class libraries and play with them. Sun can then incorporate some of the ideas from the better variants.
At any rate, Java is Sun's property and if they feel that open sourcing it will boost interest, well good for them.
A lot of people (including Stallman) lobbied for Sun to Open Source Java, but there is nothing wrong with that. It hardly "forces" Sun to do anything. It was a market force same as any other.
I am inclined to believe that Sun did it, not for Stallman, but to better compete with .NET which threatens to completely supplant Java (even, or perhaps especially, on Linux/BSD systems because of the fact that Mono and DotGNU are OSS).
No kidding, but as you already said they could be hurt now, since it now does have an open license. They only did it beause IBM is forcing people down this road, or at least they were, but Sun beat them to the bottom on this one.
Sun can't worry about Microsoft if they don't even have control of Java, and at this point, they don't even have control of Java. They weren't making much if anything on Java anyway, so they're going to race IBM to the bottom on software and compete on hardware, since IBM has a lot more to lose if all software dollars go to zero, which Sun has already survived.
I am assuming you mean "'because' IBM is forcing ". How exactly is IBM forcing SUN to opensource Java? what competing product is IBM giving away?
By implementing several clones of Java products, ever heard of Harmony, or Eclipse? Why do you think it was called "Eclipse", because they were trying to help Sun LOL? Sun sees they've already lost control of Java, so instead of letting IBM take it away from them, they gave it to someone even IBM can't control: Stallman. Stallman called it the greatest give to free software ever from a corporation, while IBM's public response was why didn't you just use our clones of Java instead. LMAO at that one, since IBM drew this punch but didn't take it very well.
I have used eclipse with SUNS Engine, Eclipse is more a development tool than a competitor with Java itself. One could point at how MS has tried in the past to force a fork of Java.
Never even heard of Harmony huh, still worried about Microsoft. FYI Microsoft failed at forking Java, but IBM didn't. So Sun is GPL'ing lots of Java, since they had already lost control anyway.
http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t19767.html
IBM has announced that it will be joining the Harmony open source Java project...And since IBM already has their own JVM, it's possible IBM will be contributing very significant amounts of code to Harmony.
Open Sourcing the JDK hardly means that they lose control of Java. As I pointed out earlier, variations already exist (J++, J#, and C# are all really Microsoft's Java variations, plus all of the OSS projects) and you have to pass Sun's Java compatibility test to really call it Java.
Plus, if Sun weren't making any money on Java, why did they defend and market it so zealously for so long? Even if the company on the whole was losing money that doesn't mean that the Java portion wasn't making anything.
They weren't making much if anything on Java anyway,
They don't sell the language it's self, that's true, but then again Microsoft doesn't sell C# (free compilers have been available from the git-go). The real money in a programming language isn't the compiler. It's book fees, trademark usage, and consulting fees. These will hardly go away with Open Source Java.
First paragraph: I am not trying to say that this won't change how easy it is to make a Java spin-off. Of course it will be easier now. All I am saying is that it won't change the level of control that Sun has over Java. In fact, it may strengthen it. Why did the FSF purists work on/use GCJ and Kaffe? It's because Java wasn't GPL'd. Now it is. The projects probably won't die tomorrow, but the interest, I am sure, will wane.
Second paragraph: Based on what I said above, the value of a language comes from the number of people using it. If by open sourcing Java Sun reinvigorates interest in Java, then they will increase Java's value.
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