Sun is set to introduce new licensing guidelines that are designed to make it easier for developers to use Java source code. Sun said that it does not intend to make Java available as an open source license. Rather, the new Java licensing rules are to be much simpler, according to Sun, encouraging developers to create commercial Java-based products.
The move is in response to ongoing competition from Microsoft and open-source development alternatives. "We're trying to simplify, as best we can, all the legalistics involving application development," said Sun Fellow Graham Hamilton.
Sun has over the years made changes to various Java licenses but this is the first initiative to overhaul its commercial Java license.
Sun is going to introduce a "Java Internal User License" (JIUL), aimed at its enterprise Java customers and a "Java Distributed License," which will take the place of the current commercial license for J2SE.
Jean Elliott, director of product marketing for Sun's Java 2 Standard Edition, told a reporter yesterday: " We'd like to see [the commercial license] be like the human tail and eventually go away, because we felt it was excessively complicated."
Sun's Matt Thompson - Director of Tech Outreach and Open Source Programs - last week said in a Technical Exchange panel discussion called "Empowering Software R&D with Open Communities" held in the Hyatt Regency Harbor Room at the EclipseCon 2005 conference:
"Right now, you can do pretty much anything you want with the Java source code for non-commercial purposes except fork it and call it Java. If you do that, we have a problem."
Which prompted JDJ's own Bill Dudney, speaking exclusively to JDJ News Desk, to say:
"I am ready to see closure on this issue. At JavaOne Sun was saying that they could see no benefit in making Java more open. I think they were wrong and I'm glad to hear that the forces to open Java are apparently pushing Sun towards that end."
Dudney continued:
"I also agree though that we don't need forked incompatible things called Java that are not, that would just serve to confuse the market. I hope to see an open Java with an open compliance suite, then we can be confident that we have the 'real thing' when using something called Java."
Now Sun's move to review its commercial license is certain to be examined with a fine-tooth comb by Java developers everywhere.
About Java News Desk JDJ News Desk monitors the world of Java to present IT professionals with updates on technology advances, business trends, new products and standards in the Java and i-technology space.
webdevguy wrote: It's
about time that Sun
relaxes their software
EULA the current one is
a straight jacket! Sun
get serious about open
sourcing Java.
DaliborTopic wrote: |||
seems Sun is gonna change
their license at this
point so every Linux
distribution can
distribute the JRE and
support Java out of the
box. |||
Nope. The JRL only allows
research use - no
distributions.
The JDL only allows
distributing after
passing the costly test
suite - no (volunteer
based) distributions.
The JIUL will only allow
*internal* use - no
distributions
Ranx wrote: Until now,
you are only allowed to
distribute the JRE with
Java software. This has
always been an problem
for creators of Linux
distributions who like to
include Java in their
distribution.
I seems Sun is gonna
change their license at
this point so every Linux
distribution can
distribute the JRE and
support Java out of the
box.
This is probably the most
important part of the
license change
provocateur wrote: Surely
an open source Java would
open the door to an MS
modified version of the
JRE being bundled with
(but not part of) Windows
or IE?
Dave Naylor wrote: Sun
will never open source
Java. Why? Because with
an open source JVM, the
revenue for J2ME is gone.
Instead of innovating
with Java we have to put
up with yet another
license.
Java Just Works wrote:
%%So, what do you think
about when you think
about Sun? Computers,
networks, operating
systems... and Java.
There's the problem,
because Java is boring.
Java is the safe
choice.%%
Sure it's boring. It
works. Just works and
works....
Read This wrote: Anyone
see Tim Bray's blog (http
://www.tbray.org/ongoing/
When/200x/2005/03/15/OneS
unYear) on March 15: "So,
what do you think about
when you think about Sun?
Computers, networks,
operating systems... and
Java. There's the
problem, because Java is
boring. Java is the safe
choice. Java is COBOL.
You won't get fired for
choosing Java. Banks use
Java. Telephone companies
use Java. CIOs like
Java...it's not exciting.
J2EE isn't either. EJBs
aren't either. Generics
and autoboxing and
variable-length argument
lists are good things,
but theyre not
exciting."
finkployd wrote: Sun's
relationship with MS came
about because of their
Java efforts. They used
their position as the
"controllers" of Java to
stop MS from bundling an
incompatible version of
Java (embrase and extend,
as it were) with Windows,
and got them to stop and
give Sun a ton of money.
Now I am no fan of Java
anyway (I do mostly C),
but had Java been truely
open source, nobody would
be able to stop MS from
doing this.
jeif1k wrote: Sun's
behavior towards open
source (e.g., Schwartz's
rantings, their fake
patent grant, their Java
efforts, their attempt to
position Solaris against
Linux, etc.) show that
Sun is not an unequivocal
supporter of free
software or open source
software.
Propeetary vs
Non-Proprietary wrote:
The lines seem to be
drawing themselves out -
on one side, we have Sun,
Microsoft; on the other,
it's IBM, Red Hat, Novell
and the rest of the
pro-Linux crowd.
And then there is HP,
trying to do a dance
right in the middle, but
getting smacked by the
fodder coming from both
sides.
Neale Napier wrote:
Whilst I can see the
benefits of open sourcing
java I just can't see how
any open source
organisation can take on
something as big as Java
especially the J2EE side
of things with the
compatibility suites used
to certify J2EE
compliance. Also, as a
Java certified engineer,
what will happen to any
certification program?
IMHO - Open sourcing java
is a nice idea in theory
but not in practice.
m50d wrote: There are
three different open
source attempts to write
a Java setup. At least
one of them happened for
the sole reason that
Sun's one is not open
source so couldn't be
included in Debian. So if
it was open source from
the start there would be
at least one less fork.
The fact is refusing to
open the language has not
prevented it forking, it
has encouraged more
forking to happen. You
could argue that the
greater ease of forking
from having the full
setup available to start
your fork would have led
to more forking, but I
doubt it because people
dislike "unofficial"
versions. Especially if
they kept the trademark,
I can't imagine any
non-Sun forks gaining
popularity unless they
were at least 20% better
than Sun's, in which case
the benefit from those
improvements probably
outweighs the damage done
by forking.
Sun quote re 'forking'
wrote: "Sun has elected
not to use an open-source
license at this time
because its commercial
customers are concerned
with 'forking,' or the
creation of incompatible
editions of the base Java
software"
an00n wrote: Believe it
or not: Java is Sun's
next cash machine. Many
people don't realize that
Sun is beginning to
cash-in big amounts of
dollars from Java. That's
because any Java-enabled
Phone, PDA, Digital TV
set-top-box, or
gadget-du-jour means a
royalty to them, up to
$1/box. There are already
several millions of these
gizmos, and a lot more
are to come in the next
years with the advent of
HDTV. Sun is even
lobbying to put Java
within DVD players (in
order to replace the
crappy system used to
author interactive menus,
that is).
Why on earth would they
open-source something
that looks like the next
golden goose ? That would
be pure business suicide.
Wake up people. It's all
about the money ! Not
about "forking" and other
stupid claims made to
distract the open-source
zealots from the real
issue.
linguae wrote: It would
be great for all
developers if Java were
open sourced under an
agreeable, OSI-compliant
license. Developers of
"unsupported" platforms
would be able to port the
JDK to their favorite
operating systems (and
redistribute sources and
binaries of the JDK,
too), which would raise
the number of developers
using Java, which in turn
raises the number of
people using Java-based
applications. Next, I
don't think Sun has to
worry much about Java
being forked. Look at C,
C++, Python, Perl, and
Ruby. C and C++ are
ANSI-certified, and Perl,
Python, and Ruby are open
source. As far as I know,
there aren't any forks of
C, Perl, and the other
languages that I've
listed.
Red Hat is sporting a
feather in its chapeau.
It's got the mighty NYSE
Euronext using its
operating system for its
mission-critical trading
platform and purring
compliments like 'Red Hat
is almost like water,
it's pervasive within our
architecture. Red Hat is
extremely strategic and
wi
Red Hat is a trusted
open source provider.
Red Hat offers enterprise
customers a long-term
plan for building
infrastructures on the
quality and innovation of
open source. Combining
open source operating
system platform, Red Hat
Enterprise Linux,
together with
applications, management
Mainsoft announced that
its latest release of
Mainsoft products provide
full support for
Microsoft's ASP.NET 2.0
AJAX Extensions and AJAX
Control Toolkit. Mainsoft
for Java EE, version 2.2,
allows Visual C# and
Visual Basic developers
to use ASP.NET 2.0
components from Microsoft
to cre
From Application
Virtualization to Xen, a
round-up of the
virtualization themes &
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NYC June 23-24, 2008 by
the world-class speaker
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International
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& Expo being held by
SYS-CON Events in The
Roosevelt Hotel, in
midtown
Brian Stevens, the Chief
Technology Officer and
Vice President of
Engineering of Red Hat,
delivered his
Virtualization Keynote
'The Future of the
Virtual Enterprise' at
SYS-CON's Virtualization
Conference & Expo 2007
West in San Francisco.
'Virtualization is the
hottest subject today,
Ulitzer, Inc., which
initially made the
headlines with its 'job
descriptions from the
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that it will launch its
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The move is in response to ongoing competition from Microsoft and open-source development alternatives. "We're trying to simplify, as best we can, all the legalistics involving application development," said Sun Fellow Graham Hamilton.
Red Hat is sporting a
feather in its chapeau.
It's got the mighty NYSE
Euronext using its
operating system for its
mission-critical trading
platform and purring
compliments like 'Red Hat
is almost like water,
it's pervasive within our
architecture. Red Hat is
extremely strategic and
wi 
Red Hat is a trusted
open source provider.
Red Hat offers enterprise
customers a long-term
plan for building
infrastructures on the
quality and innovation of
open source. Combining
open source operating
system platform, Red Hat
Enterprise Linux,
together with
applications, management
From Application
Virtualization to Xen, a
round-up of the
virtualization themes &
topics being discussed in
NYC June 23-24, 2008 by
the world-class speaker
faculty at the 3rd
International
Virtualization Conference
& Expo being held by
SYS-CON Events in The
Roosevelt Hotel, in
midtown 
Brian Stevens, the Chief
Technology Officer and
Vice President of
Engineering of Red Hat,
delivered his
Virtualization Keynote
'The Future of the
Virtual Enterprise' at
SYS-CON's Virtualization
Conference & Expo 2007
West in San Francisco.
'Virtualization is the
hottest subject today,
