

Oracle refuses to talk about Free Java campaign - Garbage
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3240584/oracle-refuses-to-talk-about-free-java-campaign/?olo=rss

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wccrawford
I think the campaign is pointless. If you want to 'free Java', fork it. Then
Oracle can choose to get on board or not.

They paid a lot of money to get Java under their wing and they aren't going to
just give it away afterwards. Yes, they were for this in the past, but the
obviously realized it wasn't going to happen (possibly because it won't work)
and chose to buy it instead to further their goals.

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bad_user
Problem is, they still have the right patents and the right attitude to kill
forks, and as other pointed out it is debatable if the patents grant applies
to derivates of OpenJDK.

What the world needs to do is to start from scratch, with a new VM, new specs,
a new base class library, plus a compiler that converts Java bytecode to this
new VM ... something like .NET / Android, but more cross-platform and less
tied to Java's standard library.

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matrix
I strongly agree. There's a real opportunity here to create a truly open VM,
one that is designed from the beginning to support functional languages. It
would need a major corporate sponsor though, because building a new platform
requires a very substantial investment. Microsoft... you listening?

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arethuza
Why not Parrot?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine>

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bad_user
IMHO it tries to do too much, and doesn't have enough resources.

A platform that resembles Java / .NET would also make porting of existing
libraries easier.

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rbanffy
I think the already glacial pace of Java evolution would not exactly improve
if it were handled by an independent entity.

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davidw
If you want a really free Java, Apache's Harmony is a great starting place.
The very liberal license means you can use it for basically whatever you want,
proprietary or open.

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bad_user
The patents pledge doesn't extend to Harmony since AFAIK it hasn't passed the
TCK yet, and even if it did, supersets/subsets aren't allowed.

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koenigdavidmj
Oracle suing the Apache Foundation? That is even worse press than their suing
Google.

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bad_user
They don't have to sue Apache, they just have to sue their users ... i.e.
Android is using Harmony's class libraries, with Google being one of Harmony's
customers.

So it is already happening.

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davidw
Most of the suit seems to be about the virtual machine, rather than the class
libraries, but to be honest, the whole thing is as clear as mud.

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melling
They are taking action to improve Java. There will be a Java release in 2011
and one in 2012. Half the people will disagree with the decision, of course.

