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Sun Joins the Free Software Foundation
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Mar 01, 2007 04:29 PM
from the putting-themselves-out-there dept.
from the putting-themselves-out-there dept.
RLiegh writes "Ars Technica reports that Sun has joined the FSF Corporate Patron program. The article explains that the FSF corporate program allows companies to provide financial assistance to the FSF in return for license consulting services. The article goes on to observe that this move is doubtlessly motivated by Sun's interest in GPL3's direction. Now that Sun has opened up Java and become an FSF corporate sponsor...could the move to dual license OpenSolaris under the GPL3 be far behind?"
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Developers: Sun Open Sources Java Under GPL 535 comments
prostoalex writes "The embargo is off, and Associated Press is reporting on Sun releasing Java under GPL. Sun is hoping that this step will attract more developers, as well as extend the lifespan of Java. The article notes that this is 'one of the largest additions of computer code to the open-source community', and that Java is currently being run on something like 3.8 Billion devices worldwide." From the article: "Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said the company hopes to turn more developers into Java programmers, who may then create additional software to support Sun products. 'The open-sourcing of this really means more — more richness of offerings, more capability, more applications that consumers will get to use,' Green said. 'The platform itself will become a place for innovation.' All the Java source code is expected to be released by March 2007, Green said. The move covers all Java technology, which includes software that runs on handheld devices, personal computers and servers."
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Sun Joins the Free Software Foundation
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And this can mean only one thing (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @10:09AM)
Free Solaris for everyone!
What this means (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ugh Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
You have experience with Solaris but don't realize that Solaris is based on a different code base than predecessors from the early 80's? Solaris is built upon SVR4 while SunOS 4.x and before were based on BSD.
The reason why Solaris was the OS of the dot com era was because is was so reliable. At the Brokerage firms I've worked at you always see Linux crash or hang and Solaris just keeps on running. That's been my experience.
And remember Solaris was designed from the beginning to support SMP, threading, and soft real-time. Things that Linux only later had hacked on (and soft real-time is still not part of Linux).
Solaris 10 [sun.com] is so far ahead of Linux that it's not even worth comparing the two but if you must just look at these New features. [sun.com]
Re:What this means (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Friday January 13 2006, @01:30AM)
What's next? Windows Vista GPL'ed? I doubt anyone cares about any technical achievements in Vista's kernel, but on a social plane, such an event would be very interesting.
best thing to happen to sun (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday December 01 2006, @10:51AM)
Sun opened up Java? (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://michael.bacarella.com/ | Last Journal: Friday November 01 2002, @06:19PM)
If this is true, how come I can't ``apt-get install java'' and get the SUn Java on Debian default install?
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.interlingua.com/)
Because java doesn't insert itself magically into the apt repository the second Sun relicenses it. This takes work.
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bastard!
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://drblast.blogspot.com/)
Compounding the problem is that Debian is also notoriously slow to update packages. You might have better luck with apt-get Pascal or apt-get COBOL.
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Informative)
Debian derivative. Uses Solaris as it's kernel.
Re:Sun opened up Java? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://del.icio.us/jvz | Last Journal: Sunday December 03 2006, @12:45PM)
Java 7 will be released under GPL3, so expect to see that in main.
Brings a whole new meaning to... (Score:4, Funny)
Disturbance in the Force (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday July 31, @03:01PM)
I just felt a tremendous disturbance in the Force. It was if millions of slashbots cried out in pain as their heads asploded.
With apologies to the late Sir Alec.
Beyond Solaris and Java... (Score:2)
(http://www.lipstadt.com/)
Clash of the titans, or a useful alliance? (Score:2, Insightful)
Both Solaris and Linux would benefit immensely from sharing with each other. But whos ever heard of two competing products helping each other.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Monday August 20, @04:49PM)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:2)
(http://www.likwit.com/)
possible. more likely because Sun has just opened up Solaris and Java, and are using the GPL. in being part of the corporate patron program, it is more likely their voice will be heard, so as to not be screwed by using the GPL.
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:5, Funny)
So what you're saying is they make money off the software they charge you for, and they don't make money off the free software.
Shocking!
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday November 09, @04:36PM)
Sun were contributing to free software long before it became popular for pseudo-open-source enthusiasts to hate them, and even did so when they themselves weren't terribly sure how much they supported the concept. From OpenLook to OpenOffice, from Solaris to the recent Java announcement, I don't think there's much one can complain about in terms of their contributions to free software.
They're good people, the world is definitely better off for them, and the free software world especially.
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:1)
that's not the point (Score:2, Interesting)
People are happy with IBM's contributions because IBM actually makes contributions. That is, they contribute stuff to existing open source projects without demanding control over those projects.
Sun isn't doing that; both Solaris and Java are going to be dual licensed and controlled by Sun. That means that while the code happens to be released under a nominally open source license, the projects are not run as open source projects, and the exchange of code doesn't work for them as it would be in an open source project.
On balance, it's still good for Solaris and Java to be released under an open source license, but there are good reasons to be a whole lot happier with IBM than with Sun.
Re:Is it really doubtless? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.ki.se/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 28, @07:06AM)
What the HELL are you talking about?? After Java was open sourced Stallman said: "I think that Sun with this contribution has contributed more than any other company to the free software community in the form of software. And it shows leadership -- it's an example I hope others will follow." [linux.com]. What more do you want?
Re:I just pulled Java project because of this (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 16 2004, @11:34PM)
Re:It's GNU/Solaris time - then Mac Aqua/Solaris? (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Friday November 09, @04:36PM)
Apple needs Darwin so it has something it has legal control over so it can keep as much (or as little) "open" as possible. Hacks like the Don't_Steal_MacOSX.kext thing wouldn't be viable if Apple had to release the source code to it under the GPL.
I do agree with your wider point though, I can see Solaris being the base of a more unified set of *ix operating systems in the future.