Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz stated at the Oracle OpenWorld Conference this week that Sun will announced the open-sourcing of the core Java platform within 30 to 60 days. This is a more aggressive timetable than previous comments by Sun's Rich Green who had indicated portions of Java being open-sourced starting this year and continuing into 2007.
Schwartz also indicated that Sun would likely use the Community Development and Distribution License to govern open-source Java. Sun's use of CDDL is not a surprise. Solaris and Sun's Glassfish application server are currently open-sourced under the CDDL, which is derived from the Mozilla Public License.
Geir Magnusson blogged on Sun's possible use of the CDDL earlier this year:
What license will Sun use? This has been and will be a source of rampant speculation. Sun needs to balance two things - dealing with their darkest fears around compatibility with the need for a licensing regime in which all players can innovate and control their own IP. Clearly the GPL won't do. While I am a big fan of the Apache License and the full freedom it offers, I can live with the CDDL and other soft-copyleft licenses. At least then, people could invest in innovation, and choose how they wished to license the IP for the things they created that were truly new...
Earlier this month InfoQ talked to Eclipse Foundation Director Mike Milinkovich who suggests that a way for Java to be truly free and independent would be to use an Eclipse-style governance model.
Community comments
No parking?
by Vic Cekvenich,
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
Re: No parking?
by Vic Cekvenich,
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
Re: No parking?
by Bahadir Yagan,
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
Re: No parking?
by Bahadir Yagan,
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
No parking?
by Vic Cekvenich,
Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
Lets see, Java now has built in:
- Rhino
- Derby DB
- Corba
- Anotations
- Beanshell
- Web start does not work on Vista 64 bit.
- lots of XML
and elemnts of EJB creaping in.
Would there be a popular standard that removes all that?
People have started moving to Ruby, Python, C#, and Groovy, and even D and Qt.
Would this be more of a Sun is "parking" Java, maybe somone takes it over. Someone that can thin it down to 20% of what people use. We all know how to add a jar if we need to, trick is to thin it down and have a new standard, "Java half".
.V
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
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Java SE does not include Rhino, Derby DB or Beanshell. Windows vista is not out yet, and you are full of c*ap.
Re: No parking?
by Vic Cekvenich,
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Ahment, I guess you agree w/ the rest of what I said, that Java SE is too big?
Here are things in SE that you disputed, you can google yourself for more:
Derby: jroller.com/page/fate/?anchor=defecating_on_a_jdk
WebStart not on 64 bit: forums.java.net/jive/search!execute.jspa?forumI...
BeanShell: www.beanshell.org
Rhino: java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/D...
Hopefully you are now benefiting from being a bit more educated. Maybe not get so personal.
.V
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
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You said "Java", not Sun's JDK distribution, so i am behind the things i said. the items i said are not defined in the java spesifications. You can extend the examples, like:
- Smart Card IO (i am waiting for this one)
- JavaTM PKCS#11 Reference implementstion (from Java 5)
Both are very useful and i am glad Sun provide those. So, the one who needs eduaction is yourself i think. i now remember your flame comments from TheServerSide too, if you dont like the state of java or Sun, please join the crowd you mention.
Re: No parking?
by Ahmet A. Akin,
Your message is awaiting moderation. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
About the vista and webstart, AMD64 instruction set can run 32 bit x86 commands natively. the speed gains (most of the time) are negligible. You can use the 32 bit version without a problem. So it is not a show stopper, Nevertheless, you can always participate the development instead of whining.
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
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I certainly hope not. I rely on Annotations and XML processing.
The latest TIOBE index (a popular measure of language use and resources):
Java 21% (pretty stable for the past year), Python 3.5%, C# (in decline) 3%, Ruby 1%, D 0.6%.
The problem, of course, is that not everyone uses the same 20%.
We may know how to, but what about end-users? Java divided into a considerable number of separate packages would be a mess - just think of the issues that could be involved in upgrading, and version management.
The JRE for Windows XP is about 16MB. That takes only a couple of minutes on typical broadband. No big deal.
In fact, I would like the runtime made larger - having Groovy installed (when it reaches version 1.0) by default would be great.
Re: No parking?
by Bahadir Yagan,
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If ever Sun includes a dynamic language with Java, it is more likely that it will be JRuby rather than Groovy.
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
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I doubt it. Ruby is not a JCP language, does not have a definitive specification, and is in a state of flux (with changes in 1.9, and uncertainty about 2.0). Groovy is a JCP specification and will have a TCK. Standardisation and compatibility testing is important for Java implementations.
Re: No parking?
by Bahadir Yagan,
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I didn't use any of them in real jobs. And I also prefer Groovy with its Java-like syntax but Tim Bray says it is Groovy that has an always changing API.
Considering Sun's investments on JRuby and their will to catch the Rails momentum, it may be the case.
Re: No parking?
by Steve Zara,
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I was surprised at Tim Bray's comment, as Groovy's API and syntax has been reasonably stable for a while, and it is hopefully converging towards a definite specification (unlike Ruby).
Personally, I prefer Ruby as a language, but it just doesn't seem a good fit with Java. I see possible benefits of Ruby on the JVM, but not as a tightly integrated scripting language for Java, and therefore not as a standard part of the JRE.