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Open Source Java

November 17, 2006 · by Scott Fradkin

Sun announced earlier this week [announcement] that they would be open sourcing Java.  Millions of Java programmers rejoiced.

What does Sun’s decision actually mean for the typical programmer?  Probably not much.

Sun decided to release the JDK along with the Java compiler and the virtual machine under the GPL v2 license [GPL website].  What this means is that Sun grants a royalty free license to anybody to redistribute the pieces of the JDK along with the source code.  Developers can also create new pieces of work based off the original code as long as they indicate the changes and the original license.  This does not stop anyone from charging money, however.  It is legitimate to charge for media distribution or warranty support.

What this may really do is kickstart more innovation with regards to the internals of the language implementation itself.

While in the past new JVMs have been created by third parties, Sun would expect those third parties to license the Java technology.  Now, since all aspects of the JDK will be under the GPL, anyone will be able to create a new JVM implementation, a new compiler implementation, or even a brand new implementation of the language itself.

I expect the real benefit will come in the form of JVMs for operating systems other than the standard UNIX/Linux, Windows and MacOS.  Hobbyists will be able to tweak things and redistribute them to others.  Academia could use the source code as a teaching tool.

This announcement is also nice for various Linux distributions and individuals who don’t like to use products that are not licensed with one of the open source licenses like the GPL.

So, at the end of the day this doesn’t really mean much for a regular user, or a non-interested developer.  For those who like royalty-free software and the ability to peek under the covers, this is a wonderful opportunity to have some fun.

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