( from the latest JavaLobby newsleatter..editorial
by RickRoss)
17-11-2006
===============================================
Stallman's
praising Sun! Are pigs flying, too?
I’d like to quote Richard Stallman (yes, that Richard Stallman!) on
Sun’s announcements yesterday, “I think Sun has,
well with this contribution, have contributed more than any other company to
the free software community, in the form of software. And it shows leadership -
it's an example I hope others will follow.” This is the man who,
just a couple of years ago, wrote a cutting essay entitled “Free But Shackled - The Java Trap <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html>”
that is anything but flattering to the Java vendor.
This extreme
turnaround on Stallman’s part illustrates how profoundly significant we must
consider Sun’s announcements about the immediate open sourcing of Java under
the GPL license. If Stallman, generally considered to be among the most
unyielding open source advocates, is now praising and congratulating Sun as a
leadership example, then what is not within the realm of possibility for Java’s
future?
The rumors were
true, and Sun has now made the move that many thought would never happen. Effective
yesterday, November 13, the whole of Java
SE, Java EE and Java ME have all been placed under the GNU GPLv2 open source
license. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun CEO, spoke plainly about how this action
relates to his “Volume Drives Value” concept and made clear that this is a
business step which he believes will lead to expanding market opportunities and
profit margins for his company. I hope he is right, and I hope that this move
helps power many more years of success for the Java industry as a whole.
One of the first
results we can anticipate is that the complete and compatible Java runtime will
probably soon be shipped by default in many more Linux distributions. Now that
the Java platform is truly open source, the legal and philosophical obstacles
which formerly blocked its inclusion in many Linux distros have been cleared
away. I know this will be a pleasant change for any of you that have ever had
to deal with the vagaries of “gcj” or had a simple system update trash your
carefully configured Java server configurations. Java on Linux is not only
significant for servers, however, and we may eventually see it become the
cornerstone for many new Linux desktop tools and applications. Gnome and other Linux gui toolkits are certainly capable,
but nothing currently available equals the general purpose computing foundation
delivered by the Java platform.
As I wrote last
week, the GPL is often thought to propagate its open source provisions to
anything and everything it comes in contact with. This will not be a problem
for Java applications under the newly adopted license because Sun has
incorporated something called the Classpath Exception. It permits you to link
your code to open source Java without forcing your code to fall under the GPL
as well. The actual language of the Classpath Exception is straightforward,
well written and mercifully brief, so you may want to take a moment to read it <http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html>.
The GNU Classpath::License page explains, “As such, it can be used to run,
create and distribute a large class of applications and applets. When GNU
Classpath is used unmodified as the core class library for a virtual machine,
compiler for the java language, or for a program written in the java
programming language it does not affect the licensing for distributing those
programs directly.” The short of it is that you don’t have to worry about
the GPL attaching itself to your Java code. It will not. When open source Java
is used unmodified as the foundation for a program written in Java, it does not
affect the licensing for that program.
I know
there are some developers who felt strongly that Sun should never open source
the Java platform, and I’m sure not all of you are thrilled by the news. If you are one of those, then
I hope you will consider the enormous pressures Sun and the entire industry are
under from the open source movement. If Java is to continue being the key
platform for innovation for the next ten years as it has for the past ten, then
it must be acceptable to the majority of those driving the innovation. In today’s
market that means it must be open source - there was really no other choice. Sun’s
management made thoughtful and wise choices about how to lead this transition,
but the writing was on the wall long before the current CEO came into his
position. From my perspective there was no other practical choice, and this
bold move by Sun will help the whole Java industry sustain its appeal and value
for years to come.
For most of you I
think Java will effectively be much the same as it has always been, totally
free and ready for you to build whatever you can dream.
The people behind Java haven’t
become visionaries merely because they have now chosen
to open source their versatile platform.
They have been visionaries for a long time already,
and even before it was open sourced I know you’ll
agree that there was much about Java to admire.( emphasis...RSR).
Let’s hope, with these intellectual property
barriers removed, that the appeal of Java will resonate to an even larger group
of developers than the millions of us around the world already using it!
Until next time,
Rick Ross
<rick@javalobby.org>
AIM or Yahoo Messenger: RickRossJL <aim:GoIm?screenname=rickrossjl>