) that sun apparently released the verilog source for their sparc processor.which makes me wonder: how free is sun technology? can java and (open)solaris be considered free software, in the RMS-sense of the word?
can somebody explain the situation w/ sun?
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can somebody explain the situation w/ sun?
I'm reading Linux User and Developer magazine (I know, the magazine titles all sound the same ) that sun apparently released the verilog source for their sparc processor.
which makes me wonder: how free is sun technology? can java and (open)solaris be considered free software, in the RMS-sense of the word?
) that sun apparently released the verilog source for their sparc processor.which makes me wonder: how free is sun technology? can java and (open)solaris be considered free software, in the RMS-sense of the word?
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Tsuroerusu
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Re: can somebody explain the situation w/ sun?
Sun has open sourced some stuff for their processor designs under the LGPL, has released some stuff of Solaris under a non-GPL compatible license approved by the OSI, and are talking about releasing ALL of Solaris under the GPLv3.thetza wrote:I'm reading Linux User and Developer magazine (I know, the magazine titles all sound the same
which makes me wonder: how free is sun technology? can java and (open)solaris be considered free software, in the RMS-sense of the word?
Java IS NOT free software it's very very much restricted, for example in order to compile a native version for FreeBSD you need to go through Sun's source license which forbids you to redistribute the resulting binaries.
"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal rule."
- Siddhattha Gotama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism.
yea, as a freebsd user i wasn't very happy when I first tried to install java...
but this raises the question of how we treat schizophrenic companies like sun which on the one hand seems to be warming up to FOSS, but still exhibit proprietary behavior. do we reward them by buying their products, or punish them by boycotting them all together?
but this raises the question of how we treat schizophrenic companies like sun which on the one hand seems to be warming up to FOSS, but still exhibit proprietary behavior. do we reward them by buying their products, or punish them by boycotting them all together?
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Tsuroerusu
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Oh man, don't get me started on that, it's just a nightmare!!thetza wrote:yea, as a freebsd user i wasn't very happy when I first tried to install java...
Well, I'm pretty much addicted to the Java-based BitTorrent client, Azureus and it needs Sun's Java in order to work, but let me assure you, when the day comes that I can not use Sun's Java, and use the Java stuff that the GNU guys are working on I will burn Sun's stuff!thetza wrote:but this raises the question of how we treat schizophrenic companies like sun which on the one hand seems to be warming up to FOSS, but still exhibit proprietary behavior. do we reward them by buying their products, or punish them by boycotting them all together?
I think that there might be a slight chance that Sun will open source the Java platform in the future, so we can only hope, if they release their entire Solaris enterprise operating system under the GPLv3, I think the chances of seeing Java opened up very good.
"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal rule."
- Siddhattha Gotama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism.
It's not a slight chance, it's a certainty. At least that is Sun's plan at present. If Google buys them, who knows what will happen.Tsuroerusu wrote:I think that there might be a slight chance that Sun will open source the Java platform in the future, so we can only hope, if they release their entire Solaris enterprise operating system under the GPLv3, I think the chances of seeing Java opened up very good.
On LUGRadio Simon Phipps was interviewed and stated that Sun will eventually be open sourcing all their software. There was also a recent episode of IT Conversations where Phipps talked about Sun's open source strategy.
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CptnObvious999
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I have run into some trouble just installing it on linux. I had to download the selfextracting jdk and jre for linux amd64 and you have to go directly to their site to get it since their liceanse prevents distros from distributing it their own way. It took me over 10 mins to find them since their site is so badly layed out and I was doing all this using lynx. Just allowing free distribution of unmodified source code would be *MUCH* better. Its no wonder there are a bunch of java clones (though none support 1.5 yet which is what I need for my online class). I think they make it so you have to go through them so they can keep track of their downloads and say "we got x many people using Java, we rock!" and try to get everyone to use. What they might not be realizing though is that may be hurting them much more then helping them.