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by Simon Brown.
Original Post: Open source Java : why all the hype?
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There's a lot of hype around the whole open source Java thing at the moment, and understandbly so. I was quite surprised when I heard that Sun had chosen the GPL license for Java and, like many others, I had lots of unanswered questions about what this really meant. Thankfully, Sun's open source Java FAQ has lots of answers and I highly recommend a read if you have a few spare minutes.
The thing I'm still struggling with is why this is such big news. There's still a lot to read on this subject, but my understanding is basically as follows.
"Java" hasn't been open sourced - Sun's implementations of Java (ME, SE and EE) have been open sourced.
Java and related specifications are still under Sun's control and managed through the existing Java Community Process. (I think this is a good thing)
The first full open source version of the JDK will be JDK 7.
An open implementation allows people to fix bugs, experiment and distribute changes, provided they adhere to the GPL license.
People can submit work to Sun for inclusion, provided they sign a contribution agreement to grant joint copyright and Sun the rights to use/open source the code.
My overriding thoughts on all of this are :
I don't think it will affect many people that build Java systems.
The real driver behind open sourcing Sun's implementations is to gain a higher market share for Java on Linux - the current non-open source licensing is the blocker to Java being included in Linux distributions.
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