OpenJDK on Solaris Dev Express 1/2008?

[Andrew Haley]

Erik Trimble wrote:
> Andrew John Hughes wrote:
>> 2008/6/4 Kelly O'Hair <Kelly.Ohair at sun.com>:
>>  
>>> Not sure what you mean by the Sun Studio trap.
>>
>> I'm referring back to the Java trap - before Sun released their JDK
>> under the GPL, it was possible to have applications under a Free
>> Software license written in Java which couldn't be run in a Free
>> environment because they would only work under the proprietary JDK.
>> GNU Classpath was the community's attempt to free Java from this
>> trap.

>> Only being able to build the OpenJDK using the proprietary Sun
>> Studio compiler on Solaris creates a similar issue, though the
>> scope of the problem is fortunately more restricted.  I'm not sure
>> OpenSolaris itself can even be built with GCC, which is an even
>> worse issue - it's not truly Free Software if it can only be built
>> with proprietary tools.

> This is NOT a trap.  This is a CHOICE OF PREFERENCE made by the FS
> Community.  It is no more a trap than using GPL'd programs in
> conjunction with the Apache http server is.   Just because we don't play
> exactly in your world doesn't mean there is a trap.  Traps are when you
> cannot replace a whole component layer easily with something else.  So,
> if your GPL'd Java program had to run on a Sun JDK under Solaris, that
> would certainly be true.  However, you can run your Java program on one
> of about 4 major JDKs now, under over a dozen OSes, so that hardly
> qualifies as a trap.
> 
> Remember, not everyone wants everything in one particular format (or,
> license).  We've got end-users who can't stand the GPL, for some _very_
> good reasons. We've got other folks who are sore at us for not using an
> MPL-style license.   So, I take license-criticism extremely poorly.

I don't think he was, actually: he was just talking about not wanting to
depend on unfree software; Apache is free software, as is gcc, as is
OpenSolaris, as is OpenJDK.  He didn't mention the GPL at all; you did.

Andrew.