[gentoo-amd64] Re: Sun and GPL

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Isidore Ducasse <ducasse.isidore@gmail.com> posted
20070527131103.770b71c6@Bazaar, excerpted below, on  Sun, 27 May 2007
13:11:03 +0200:

> I've heard that Sun recently released the Java platform under GPL, and
> that all of their softs are going to follow in a near future.

Not necessarily (or likely) /all/ their software, but significant parts 
of it.  OpenSolaris is currently CDDL, which /is/ OSI approved as a real 
"open" license, but was designed in part deliberately to be GPLv2 
incompatible.  Apparently, they weren't interested in Linux "stealing" 
their technologies, which they thought would happen if they made it GPLv2 
compatible.

They ARE considering dual-licensing Solaris under GPLv3, however, which 
they've been working closely with the FSF on.  Of course that's not a 
given until it's out, but it'd definitely widen the interest base (I for 
one may well be interested, especially if Linux stays GPLv2 only).

Of course Linus and the other kernel devs were originally very much 
against early GPLv3 drafts.  Linus at least has apparently changed his 
mind with the later ones, but again, we'll have to see, and it would take 
nearly all of the big contributors current and past agreeing for it to be 
practical, and even then there'd likely be a period of several years 
where it was dual licensed v2 and v3 until all those who couldn't be 
reached or didn't agree could have their v2 code written out of it.  
Eventually, the v2 side could be dropped, after all the v2 only code was 
gone.

But they have other software as well.  Java, however, you are right, 
GPLv2 is what they've announced, but again, it's taking some time.  Much 
of it is now, but not the complete stack.

> I've
> synced portage 2 days ago and dev-java/sun-jre-bin is still licensed
> against dlj-1.1 . Does anybody know how long it can take to have the
> license changed? Will it change at the occasion of a new release or is
> it applicable with the current version? Does it mean we'll have a 64-bit
> java web browser plugin some day?

What Gentoo is doing, from what I've seen based on some of the smaller 
Java packages, is eliminating the -bin version and switching to a 
standard (for Gentoo) sources based ebuild.  I've not followed Java /
that/ closely as it hasn't been open source, and I won't install it until 
it is, but I've been following the developments here as I come across 
them.  The Gentoo Java devs are working on it, but as I said, I don't 
believe enough of the entire Java infrastructure has been released as GPL 
yet to do the entire thing as sources.  Even after it has, it'll take 
several months as experimental ebuilds in the Java overlay (emerge layman 
and read up on using it, if interested), before it is considered stable 
enough to release into the main tree, even as ~arch.  Then it'll be in 
~arch for awhile, while any bugs the ~arch users find being worked out, 
before it makes it to stable.

So, I'm not /real/ close to things, talk to devs on the Java herd if you 
want real detail, but an intelligent guess based on the above that I know 
is that it'll be several months, likely late this year or early next, 
before full source based Sun blessed Java is in the main tree, almost 
certainly before it reaches stable.


-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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