It is not that long ago that I wrote an Open Letter to Sun about Java on Linux urging Sun to provide better integration of Java on Linux. It looks like I was not the only one pushing and Sun surely made a splash last weekend.
After creating the distribution license to allow the inclusion of the Java runtime with Linux distros, thanks to which my Ubuntu now has Java out of the box, Sun made an even bigger commitment.
As promised they are open sourcing the whole Java stack and announced that it will be released under the GPL! This is truly awesome and aligns Java well with Linux, which is also licensed under the GPL.
Check out the site about the announcement, watch the video and see the FAQ for details.
The actual announcement video itself is pretty interesting featuring interviews with Richard Stallmann, Eben Moglen and others. There is lots of positive and interested coverage all over the web e.g. Groklaw or the JBoss Blog. A lot more links related to the event can be found on java.net here and here.
So now after OpenSolaris and OpenSparc we now have OpenJDK, which brings a lot of new opportunities to the Java and FOSS community e.g. Joshua Marinacci ideas. Even the Java mascot Duke has been open source licensed. Sun really thought of it all. What a great day!
For all our members we even received a OReilly special celebration offer of 40% off all Java related books (use code JAVASUN).
Now I just gotta find out more on how to package Java programs for Ubuntu…
Very exciting time are ahead for all Java Developers!