[CentOS-docs] Proposal: Java HowTo Section

Thu Apr 30 17:05:02 UTC 2009
R P Herrold <herrold at centos.org>

On Wed, 29 Apr 2009, Sean Gilligan wrote:

> Russ Herrold added the "special note" on OpenJDK, hopefully he will
> chime in.

Sean, I think you are on the right track;  I would refactor 
the java articles into a couple of them in a sub-tree, with 
a chooser at the head, probably forming on pre/post 5.3, and 
on Method A and Method B, to better handle sub issues, and aid 
maintenance.

The 'political' background on Java and the absence of a Four 
Freedoms freely availabile test suite to produce a conforming 
Java (it is seriously not free, and remains so) constrains the 
CentOS project mightily.  We need nothing but elideable 
trademarks (and no other IP constraints) to be able to safely 
build it.  No NDA's no indemnifications, no patent threats, no 
non-freely reproduceable copyrights.  See my IA_AL disclaimer 
in the piece cited in a moment, included by reference here.

In the absence of a reasonable test suite for EACH OF 1) a 
given Java implementation, and disjunctly 2) a given Java 
application, I have led (strenuously) opposition to the 
inclusion of Java in the LSB standard, and will continue to so 
drive my views, until and unless Sun's entire toolchain [of 
that from another project] becomes Four Freedoms (or at least 
OSI FOSS) compatible.

https://lists.linux-foundation.org/pipermail/lsb-discuss/2008-August/005410.html

has all the gory details.

This opposition does not mean I oppose Java and its use; it is 
just not FOSS.  I am please to see that the java application I 
use (also using the AWT) 'just works' under 5.3 with the 
addition of some fonts; when I have time I'll narrow down just 
what I need in a minimal install.

-- Russ herrold