Sun promises to open-source Java
Apparently, this is the big news out of JavaOne today (someone drink a Guinness for me at the Thirsty Bear).
[Sun has] called upon developers and members of the Java Community Process for feedback on the best way to open source Java. He didn’t provide say when he expects open source Java to be available.
This is interesting to hear from my point of view because Sun has recently been working with Linux distros to ease the distribution of Java. For example, in Gentoo, we use to have a fetch restriction on Sun’s jdk/jre because of their license (this means that the user had to goto Sun’s website and download the Java compressed file after clicking 5 or so things. They also had to sell their soul). Recently, a Sun representative has worked with us (Gentoo) to remove this restriction to make it a bit easier for the end user. So at least props to Sun in this regard 🙂