

IcedRobot to run Android apps on OpenJDK - aphexairlines
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/IcedRobot-to-run-Android-apps-on-OpenJDK-1186003.html

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bokchoi
The actual project announcement:

<http://www.jroller.com/neugens/entry/introducing_icedrobot>

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rst
And if they're running on OpenJDK, their runtime would be covered by the
OpenJDK patent grants, which might allow one way to sidestep the current
Oracle/Google patent litigation over Android's Dalvik. Unless Oracle's legal
department comes up with some chicanery to block their supposedly GPLed, open-
source codebase from being loaded on a mobile phone.

(Disclaimer: IANALawyer. Consult your own before betting your company.)

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jancona
You'd better consult a lawyer I if you're planning on running anything other
than GPL software on a phone, because I'm pretty sure the classpath exception
doesn't apply on mobile platforms, meaning that anything you run on the GPL
JVM must itself be GPL.

~~~
rst
Well, I don't see any platform restrictions in the text of the classpath
exception here: <http://openjdk.java.net/legal/gplv2+ce.html>

I know they require that an alternative implementation have platform
restrictions before they'll let it run the TCK (which was the problem with
Apache Harmony), but I don't see any in the license for OpenJDK itself. Is
there some other source I should be looking at?

Full text, from there (applying only to source files that specifically say
"subject to the 'Classpath' exception" in the header):

    
    
        Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is making
        a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and conditions of
        the GNU General Public License cover the whole combination.
    
        As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
        permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
        executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules,
        and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under terms of your
        choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked independent module,
        the terms and conditions of the license of that module.  An independent
        module is a module which is not derived from or based on this library.  If
        you modify this library, you may extend this exception to your version of
        the library, but you are not obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do
        so, delete this exception statement from your version.

~~~
jancona
If use the J2SE code (which is GPL with classpath exception) you can't run the
TCK. Without passing the TCK you can't call it Java, and you don't get the
patent license. See here: <http://skife.org/java/jcp/2010/12/07/the-tck-
trap.html>

If you use the J2ME code, presumably you can get the TCK for mobile use (and
associated patent protection), but the license doesn't include the classpath
exception.

~~~
rst
And that applies even if you're running OpenJDK unaltered, which is certified
as passing the TCK by Oracle itself?

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yatsyk
It would be nice to try android application in desktop browser before buying.
With this project I believe it would be not so hard to create applet (or how
they are called in 2011) for browser and show some features of your android
application without installing to device.

