IcedTea's OpenJDK Passes Java Test Compatibility Kit

emyar writes "At JavaOne in May, 2006, Sun Microsystems announced they were going to release Java as free software under the terms of the GPL. The size of the task (6.5 million lines of code) was only eclipsed by the size of the opportunity for Java as a free and open technology. [...] This week the IcedTea Project reached an important milestone — The latest OpenJDK binary included in Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). This means that it provides all the required Java APIs and behaves like any other Java SE 6 implementation — in keeping with the portability goal of the Java platform."

Re:bfd

[PinkPanther]

How does having an "independent" (whatever that means) implementation make a platform "right" (or rather, lack of one make it "wrong").

What is it that is "wrong" in the platform? The fact that the base implementation is solid enough that few others found need to rewrite that wheel?

Language Compatibility vs. Class Libraries

[KidSock]

Languange compatibility was never the main problem - it was class libraries. Java has a mountain of class libraries.

Unfortunately most of them are complete bloat (e.g. Swing, NIO, logging ...). Each package is like a treatise on OOP and design patterns. When are people going to learn that OOP is just one tool of many?

But Java the *language* is great. I wish that someone would create a non-bloat version of the Java class libraries. Do an analysis of important use cases, redesigned the class libraries to be much less "fluffy" and then post some metrics to show how much better it performs.

What's the point?

[jps25]

Okay, so I understand that this is a huge success, yay GPL and all that, but what is wrong with Sun's JDK?
What makes the OpenJDK more desirable than Sun's?
Is it merely the GPL?
Are there any performance gains?
I don't use java, so I really have no idea and it would be nice if someone could enlighten me.

Re:Perfomance

[sm62704]

How about performance. It is a great milestone, it is, but if it is too slow it isn't ready for prime time.

With 6.3 megs of source my guess is the guy from Space Oddessy would say "My God! It's full of bloat!"

I would be incredibly surprised if it was speedy. I wonder how many of those lines are "NOP"? How many of them are comments? How many are actual, once working code that has been commented out?

Re:What's the point?

[Funks]

Okay, so I understand that this is a huge success, yay GPL and all that, but what is wrong with Sun's JDK? What makes the OpenJDK more desirable than Sun's? Is it merely the GPL? Are there any performance gains? I don't use java, so I really have no idea and it would be nice if someone could enlighten me.

Trying using the Sun distributed JDK on FreeBSD, NetBSD and other micro architectures like MIPS. Moreover, being completely GPL - Linux distributions will be able to bundle it in. The BSD's will also benefit from this and won't be treated like a redheaded step-child anymore when selecting a JEE hosting platform. Note, RedHat is a big player in the Java (JEE) middleware industry. So basically, it was in their best interest to see this through.

Re:Language Compatibility vs. Class Libraries

[snoyberg]

Why would remove features from the library make a program perform (significantly) better? Why not just avoid using those classes you consider bloated?

Re:What's the point?

[youngdev]

It is my understanding that all of core java would be based on the OpenJDK going forward. Basically OpenJDK is SunJDK6.999 beta. SunJDK 7 will be the openJDK and SunJDK >= version 7 will all be open(gpl?).

Someone please correct me if that is wrong.

Re:Really ?

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't realize (or maybe you do) how accurate this is. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a perfect example.

I sit right next to a guy at work that went to the same university I did. However he's got 10 years on me. Both degrees are in Computer Science. Yet he knows a LOT more about E.E. stuff than I do. It seems the curriculum at our school got softer (pun intended) as the years went on.

I realize this at least and do my best to pick up bits and pieces from him and the other E.E. guys here at work. But it does disappoint me a bit that I didn't get the same level of education as my co-worker.

Re:Just use a glove

[rootpassbird]

I'm collecting a lot of bad karma these days, but +5, Insightful anyway.
To say it bluntly, Harmony brought about the GPL-ing of Java