OpenJDK governing board, constitution

[Dalibor Topic]

On 01/17/09 22:07, Mark Wielaard wrote:
>> And if you're not providing code, you're providing "air- 
>> cover" by letting them point to openjdk as a model open free software  
>> community.
>>     
>
> It is an open free software community, even though some derivatives are
> not fully free software. Something I greatly regret. And you will always
> see me being very critical of that and help out any alternative effort
> to work around that. And that works. There has never been any attempt to
> stifle anybody or any group creating any derivative of the code, whether
> it be IcedTea as shipped most GNU/Linux distros now, nor any of the
> other hybrid implementations
> http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/06/openjdk-hybrids
>   
I should add that two hybrid implementations have applied and received 
their TCKs,
too (Tarent & CACAO). I hope we'll see many more prosper over the coming 
years!

As far as being a 'model community' goes, I think OpenJDK is 
substantially different
from other models typically held up in discussions, in that it's not 
focused on making
people commit to the 'one true way of developing one open source 
software project
centrally'.

Instead, it's a 'meta-project', hosting different sub-projects like 
OpenJDK7, each one with
their own goals, motivations, constraints, communities and rules of 
engagement. It's also
quite different from some other open source projects in embracing and 
working with
autonomous efforts around the code base, rather then seeing them as a 
challenge to a
centralized model.

I'd see those two aspects as derived from the GNU Classpath culture of 
encouraging
developers to work on the projects important to them under their own 
rules, while
sharing improvements on a common stream in ways that make sense to them.
Rather then having one specific shared stream, OpenJDK 'lifts' that 
approach up one
meta-level higher, so that there can be many shared side streams, and 
code can flow
through subprojects like a canal network.[1]

cheers,
dalibor topic

[1} So, for example, the version of HotSpot flowing into OpenJDK 6 and 
OpenJDK 7
can be the same one, or a different one, depending on what choices the 
developers in
each project make. It's their choice to make.

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