Debian's Java policy says, "If your source package can compile (correctly) only with non-free tools (the only free Java compilers seem to be guavac, gcj and jikes, it cannot go to main." While this means that users who want to run Java applets in the browser under Fedora or Debian have to go through a few tricky steps, the larger impacts are on bundled desktop tools and office suite integration with back office applications. The distributions on which both depend, Fedora in the case of Red Hat and Debian in the case of Ubuntu, both have not allowed Java as a core technology.
GPL JAVA UNIVERSAL DATABASE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE
Sun's announcement today changes that, and represents a boon to Red Hat and Ubuntu, recently made the targets of legal threats from Microsoft following that company's patent non-aggression pact with Novell.īoth Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Canonical's Ubuntu Linux boast Java installation tools and support, but until now Java has been a second-class citizen of both platforms because neither will let essential software depend on another company's proprietary component. Java has been the only common language in which useful open source software is written that does not itself have a full-featured open source implementation. Apt-get is a Debian tool for deploying and upgrading software, which gives system adminstrators installing a single application the ability to automatically pull in the correct versions of the infrastructure on which the app depends. "Java going GPL is going to greatly simplify having an 'apt-gettable' solution for a whole pile of corporate needs," says Ean Schuessler, CTO of Dallas-based custom software development firm Brainfood, Inc.
Sun's announcement that it will apply the GNU General Public License (GPL) to Java means simpler integration of Java-based business code into the Linux environment, according to application developers.
The awkward gaps between Java business applicationsĪnd mainstream Linux distributions and tools. Java's new GPL status has the potential to smooth over
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