So it finally happened, Sun relicensed Java to the GNU Public License (GPL), the most widely used Open Source license.
I welcome this move and look forward to seeing where it will take the Java and open software in general.
According to the theserverside.com: ” The rumors have been confirmed by Sun: Java is going to be released in full under the GPL v2. The initial plan is to release Hotspot and the javac compiler under the GPL v2, with the rest of Java to follow in the first half of 2007. Java EE will also be opened under the GPL, as well as J2ME. The Java specification will remain under the control of the JCP.
The GPLed components will be hosted in the JDK communities on dev.java.net. Initial components (javac and Hotspot, as well as Javahelp) are from the Java 7 codebase, as Java 6 is almost entirely finished; Java 6 will eventually be put under the GPL as time permits.
The key behind moving to the GPL is to drive more volume and more adoption for the platform. The GPL helps get Java into some markets that it hasn’t served as fully as it should – such as educational markets, governments in the developing world, and some commercial customers – as well as, obviously, some distributions of Linux which insist not on Linux-friendly licenses but on actual GPL licensing.
GPLv2 was chosen over GPLv3 for fairly obvious reasons: GPLv3 isn’t finished yet! Sun is, they said, working with the FSF on defining GPLv3.”
