Sun to Fully Open Source Java

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf brings news that Sun Microsystems will be removing the last restrictions on Java to make it completely open source. Sun wants Java to be easily available for use in Linux distributions. We've discussed the steps Sun has taken to open-source Java over the past couple years. From Yahoo! News: "'We've been engaging with the open-source community for Java to finish off the OpenJDK project, and the specific thing that we've been working on with them is clearing the last bits that we didn't have the rights,' to distribute, Sands said. 'Over the past year, we have pretty much removed most of those encumbrances.' Work still needs to be done to offer the Java sound engine and SNMP code via open source; that effort is expected to be completed this year. Developers, though, may be able to proceed without a component like the sound engine, Sands said.

Better late than early

[Just Some Guy]

Kudos to Sun for waiting so long to open source it. Had it been FOSS back when my company was trying to decide what language to standardize on, we might have picked it instead of Python. Thanks!

What,

[Trogre]

again?

Re:Kudos to them, I guess

[SeePage87]

It's ok guys, I'll handle this.

How has Java being closed source affected you personally

I can't count the number of times I've cried myself to sleep thinking of the poor children who blindly agree to arbitrary EULAs which they are incapable of understanding.

What effects do you see this having in the future

Now those children blindly agree to the somewhat less arbitrary GPL which they are incapable of understanding.

This is truly a magnificent day!

Re:Kudos to them, I guess

[CajunArson]

A lot of us don't have the time to waste multiple hours compiling software.

And the rest of us use Gentoo. If this new "open source" Java takes less than a week to compile, I will be extremely disappointed in Sun's efforts!

Re:Sun's source code

[wild_quinine]

Now if only we could have the Sun's source code to modify the Sun and fix global warming...

No good, you wouldn't be able to see it when doing a nightly build.

Re:Better late than early

[mortonda]

If Java is the answer, you're asking the wrong questions.

Re:Better late than early

[RiotingPacifist]

Funny, last time i said Java wasn't fully open source, i got modded -1 [slashdot.org]
Dear moderators, i would like to take this opertunity to perform a little victory rickroll as seen here [youtube.com]

For the record OO, also has a clause that stops it being fully GPL, thats why neo office code cant be used, because sun want to take open source contributions and use them in their proprietary version of open office

Go on mod me down, it will only make me stronger

Re:Java and Open Source

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

The fact that mine may be modded "Redundant" makes me a little sad inside.

It's all too late

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all too late, really. A few years ago I was a java fan (still am to an extent) but this should have happened years ago. Now it just reminds me of the time my girlfriend's grandmother gave me a rather scary grin and told me she was wearing stockings and suspenders.

Re:What fate awaits GNU Classpath?

[Anonymous Coward]

Classpath has been almost reaching 1.0 status for about six years now.

So that's what's been holding up Duke Nukem ...

Re:Better late than early

[hotfireball]

Job search hits from Dice.com

Java [dice.com]: 15786 jobs
Python: [dice.com] 1395 jobs
Ruby: [dice.com] 757 jobs
C/C++ [dice.com] 6283 jobs

BTW, same site says:
Excel: 10742 jobs
Coffee making: 22 jobs
Micromanagement: 96539 jobs
Yelling on Employees: 1 job (Junior Technolohist)

Re:Kudos to them, I guess

[iapetus]

Actually, Sun used to have my favourite EULAs in the computing world. Because they displayed them in editable text areas. The contracts into which I have entered with Sun in order to download Java are many and varied, as a result. And Sun still owe me upwards of $10m for using their software.

Re:Better late than early

[David Gerard]

Once Java is properly open sourced, I predict an explosion in open source Java apps. At which time the Java system will get optimisations in performance and usability at a furious rate.

Re:Better late than early

[TuringTest]

Oh, but Python is strongly typed [cincomsmalltalk.com].

What, you meant static typing check on function declarations? Well, you can have that in Python [oakwinter.com], too. But I can't see how that single feature can make a language suitable for enterprise work.