Distribution License for Java Out!
After much speculation and debate about Open Source Java, the Javalobby has covered about an annoucement made by Sun during the last JavaOne Conference in San Francisco. This annoucement involves the details of a new “Open Source Distribution Friendly” license called “Distro License for Java“. The DLJ will allow distributions like Debian, Ubuntu and Gentoo to include Java in their distribution.
“This new license shows that Sun and the Java technology world care about GNU/Linux and open source platforms and are willing to put aside philosophical differences and get down to business,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder and sponsor of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution, the most-downloaded GNU/Linux in the world for the last eight months. “This eliminates one of the biggest roadblocks to wider use of the Java platform on free and open source operating system platforms and makes Java technology a more attractive foundation on which to build new projects and innovations.”
However, RedHat is not convinced by this new license developed in coorperation with distribution makers.
Sun Microsystems’ new GNU/Linux-friendly Java license does not go far enough for Red Hat. It says Sun should have open-sourced Java instead.
Brian Stevens, Red Hat CTO, told The Register Sun should open-source its Java Virtual Machine (JVM) (which is licensed by Red Hat) so developers can improve the software’s real-time capabilities.
I do agree that Java might be better off fully open sourced. A fully open sourced Java will allow greater community participation and hopefully accelerate the growth of Java as a platform and technology. But, the DLJ is definitely a step in the right direction. It may not be open source. But, at least, it will allow distribution makers to include Java as their own package making it easier for systems administrators and users to get Java applications on open source platforms (such as Linux, FreeBSD and OpenSolaris) up and running.
June 29th, 2006 at 12:30 am
[…] It now comes with the Sun Java Development Kit 1.5. This is made possible because of Sun’s new Distribution License for Java. I tried out Belenix in my virtual machine and didn’t really find it interesting. Primarily because it came with the stock Linux-looking Xfce and KDE. So I wanted to try out the real thing. So I grabbed by Solaris 10 CDROMs and started installing. […]