Sun Disappoints (Again)

Sat, 2006-05-20 14:20 — Matthew Davidson

After months of rumours, hints, intimations, etc. that Sun will finally release Java under a free license, Sun has announced that they will be re-releasing their Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 5 under - drumroll, please - a slightly different proprietary license. While Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth is pleased that the new license allows him to distribute proprietary, binary-only Java packages, Red Hat's CTO is less than impressed.

The way I see it, this slightly more permissive license means:

More people will be using more proprietary software, many without being aware of it.
Support for the development of a truly free Java platform will be undermined.

Sun have again trotted out the usual justification for not freeing Java: it's in order to "[maintain] Java's 'write once, run anywhere' compatibility promise", because for some reason we are supposed to believe it's impossible for a free software platform to deliver this. Three words, okay? "Perl", "Python", "PHP".

My, I'm a grumpy Gus today.