[CentOS] GPL java

Wed Nov 15 23:13:26 UTC 2006
Jim Perrin <jperrin at gmail.com>

For the people who are currently interested in java as it relates to
centos now that Sun has GPL'd java there are some things to be aware
of.

The folks at jpackage.org are pretty much all over this development
but it's not the bright shiny news everyone has made it out to be. Sun
did a very good thing by moving java under the GPL, and they should be
commended for FINALLY seeing the light after the failure of the DLJ
license BUT:

1. Sun did not open all of java under the GPL. There are still several
chunks of java which remain license encumbered and will require
community workarounds or further moves by Sun to open code. Currently
these include the color management code, font rasteriser code,
graphics rasteriser code, and several more.

2. Sun is not opening up the Java trademark, so any GPL'd distribution
of java will not be called 'java', but something else. I've heard that
iceweasel is taken, so I don't know what the next best option is.

The fine folks at jpackage are working the details further. This
basically means that for the time being, there will not be a gpl'd jdk
in centos4, and packages will have to be distributed under the DLJ
license (which I am not a fan of) or obtained from java.sun.com and
used in conjunction with the jpackage sun-java-compat packages for
best performance.



-- 
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Orwell