When the Sun goes down - what happens to the OpenJDK?

[Mark Wielaard]

On Tue, 2009-04-21 at 08:10 -0400, Geir Magnusson Jr. wrote:
> > But besides naming I agree that we should make sure to get a some free
> > compatibility kit. The problem here is the JCP which grants Sun[/ 
> > Oracle]
> > special rights with respect to the platform TCKs. Hopefully a JSR for
> > Java7 isn't accepted without making sure that the platform TCK is also
> > available as free software.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean.   The JSPA grants Sun an effective veto  
> regarding "platform JSRs" (EE, SE, ME), but they have no special  
> rights wrt the platform TCKs.  The platform TCKs are just TCKs, and  
> the licensing of them must conform to the JSPA.  (see "fight, Apache  
> and Sun, Java SE TCK" for more information :)

It probably depends on how you interpret JSPA 5.F.IV. which seems to
explicitly exclude Sun from all such legal obligations except for
offering a TCK separately (but under its own terms) from any RI. But I
agree that the JSPA is a twisted document that can be interpreted in
multiple ways. At least to this reader it seems to grant a lot of
privileges to Sun above and beyond any other participant. The current
setup of the JCP at least seems not ideal for free software community
participation.

> I'm all for TCKs being open source or "free" software, but I'm not  
> convinced that it's necessary.  I can live with non-free/non-open TCKs.

We clearly differ on this point. I think it is necessary and that
"compatibility through NDAs" is just nuts and hurts the community and
users at large.

Cheers,

Mark