[OSM-talk] Java and freedom

[Nick Hill]

There has been much discussion over the last week, and misunderstanding in parts of the 
free software community about SUNs new license for Java, the DLJ.

Many have reported the release of Java under the DLJ as being 'open sourcing' java. This 
is absolutely not the case. SUN Java remains as non-free (and as far away from the OSF 
definition of 'Open Source') as it ever has been. The license simply permits the 
distribution of the non-free SUN binaries with (free) operating systems.

Many free software JVMs exist for java. Most are perfect. Some give better functionality 
than SUNs own Java machine. For example, the free gcj will optionally compile Java to a 
highly optimised, fast, small native platform binary linked to libgcj for garbage 
collection etc. However, the stumbling block has been availability of the Java class 
libraries/APIs which all java implementations need.

GNU classpath is an advanced effort to create a completely free set of libraries for Java, 
compatible with SUN java. Classpath currently implements 99.77% of JDK 1.1 and 99.02% JDK 
1.4 standard libraries.

In fact, the development of the free java implementaton is so advanced that the 
sophisticated integrated development environment, Eclipse, can be installed through the 
Ubuntu package manager and run with GCJ out of the box. Many other sophisticated free java 
applications also work very well on free java.

Richard Stallman has written a piece "Free But shackled- the Java trap"
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html

My contributions to OSM are limited by this stumbling block. I am not inclined to use 
non-free java. I have been brushing up on my Java over the past few days to see if there 
is any way (with my currently very limited java knowledge) I can make the OSM Java 
applications available to free software platforms.