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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--MissM
We will be talking a lot about this on next week's show. If I am still too ill, I'll write it up for the rest of the cast.
ReplyDeleteThis is really important, and NOT because the FOSS folks think it is the right thing to do. It's all about continuity. Were Sun to go into the tank tomorrow, Java will continue on and grow to meet every more demanding uses.
We learned about continuity and the importance of it when MS decided to drop Visual Basic in favor of the .NET implementation of a similarly named but incompatible language. No more functional or security updates for VB 6 means a lot of developers were hung out to dry. The resentment is still palpable on developer's forums, despite some ameliorating actions by MS.
Jack
Its good to see you post Jack! Maybe you would be able to record your thoughts, just in case, you don't feel up to during the show...
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing them, as always.
Jane