Java is finally Free and Open
Jun 19th, 2008 by sharps
At JavaOne in May, 2006, Sun Microsystems announced they were going to release Java as free software under the terms of the GPL. The size of the task (6.5 million lines of code) was only eclipsed by the size of the opportunity for Java as a free and open technology.
At JavaOne in May 2007, Sun announced that the work was largely completed and so OpenJDK was launched. What was less newsworthy was the fact that on release - OpenJDK still relied on code that was encumbered - between 4 and 5 percent of the code was closed, non free source that Sun didn’t own.
Richard Stallman described the encumbered code as :
“The one last obstacle [which] remains in liberating JDK and disarming the Java Trap completely”
and rallied the FOSS and Java communities to
“… work together to replace that code with free software”
So, who would step up to the challenge of making Java truly free and open ?
In June, 2007 - Red Hat launched the IcedTea project with the goal of making OpenJDK usable without requiring any other software that is not free. That in turn would allow OpenJDK to be included in Fedora and other Linux distributions without restrictions. The IcedTea Project made use of previous work developed under the GNU Classpath Project which had been independently driving towards a free and open implementation of the Java class libraries.
This week the IcedTea Project reached an important milestone - The latest OpenJDK binary included in Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). This means that it provides all the required Java APIs and behaves like any other Java SE 6 implementation - in keeping with the portability goal of the Java platform. As of writing, Fedora 9 is the only operating system to include a free and open Java SE 6 implementation that has passed the Java TCK. All of the code that makes this possible has been made available to the IcedTea project so everyone can benefit from the work.
The Java TCK is a complex suite of tools and documentation that verifies that Java implementations conform to the Java specification. It consists of more than 80,000 tests and over 1 million lines of code.
From here the initial plans are to make OpenJDK part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions starting with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 and to expand the platform support. Beyond that our plans are still evolving, but clearly this creates some great opportunities for both Red Hat and Java. For example :
- Improving Java for virtualized, hosted environments - an area where Red Hat Linux has excelled but Java has struggled.
- Optimizing the performance and scalability of the full stack of Java-based JBoss Enterprise Middleware for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Linux in general
- Being able to better manage the lifecycle of JBoss Enterprise Middleware platforms and the Java Virtual machine on which it depends
- A more fundamental opportunity is for Red Hat to be able to increase the depth of support for the JBoss Enterprise Middleware platforms running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Over the coming months, we’ll continue working with our communities of users, customers and partners to better understand the opportunities that OpenJDK and IcedTea present to us.
Working with Sun Microsystems and the broader Open Source Java community; Red Hat’s OpenJDK team included Tom Fitzsimmons, Lillian Angel, Gary Benson, Keith Seitz, Mark Wielaard and Andrew Haley.
Tom Fitzsimmons will be at the Red Hat Summit in Boston between June 18th and 20th, so if you want to chat about the project - swing by the Exhibit Hall, grab a beer, and ask him how much fun the Java TCK testing was.
Java, Java SE, OpenJDK and Java TCK are all Trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc.
[...] See Rich Sharples’ announcment here. [...]
Its about time isnt it. Long overdue indeed.
JT
http://www.ULtimate-Anonymity.com
Well, IceTea did not pass my tests. The plugin does not work properly on some web sites.
it’s never too late
[...] Rich Sharple’s Blog [...]
[...] More at SoftWhere [...]
Now, if they could only make a Firefox plugin that actually works perfectly, I’ll be happy.
My congratulations and thanks to all people involved
Who cares! Open code does not mean an open process … something which Sun is totally lacking!
Thank you RH for working on this. Previous implementation of stack based on gcj made it really painfull to maintain systems with mixed JPackage and RHEL stacks as they were conflicting/colliding/mixing and breaking altogether. I hope this announcement means that 5.3 is going to be shipped with clean stack and no gcj in sight.
Ah, finally! The things that will come out of this will be amazing!
YEAH! DRINK THAT KOOL-AID BITCHES!
[...] Fonte: http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196 [...]
Good on you guys - that’s fantastic.
I’ll attempt to address those commenter who have left. I don’t work for Fedora, so..
fujisan :- Pass -what- tests. Perhaps the websites wrote specific ‘is this “Suns Java” ?’ which I have seen. Other java implementations probably would have failed there. if they don’t perhaps you can lodge a bug at http://bugzilla.redhat.com
met: Open source is the first step to an open process, now you can talk to them on their public lists about their design decision. Without open source, you had no choice, now at least you can fix it for -yourself-.
I have been launching oracle applications (web loader) from my “icedtea” implementation for some time. Its possible your problem lies elsewhere, maybe ubuntu isn’t up to the task.
[...] is finally Free and Open :: http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196 [...]
> So, who would step up to the challenge of making Java truly free and open ?
Now, while not trying to diminish the great efforts of IcedTea project and other folks outside Sun, I’d like to point out that most encumberances (the font rasterizer, graphics rasterizer, java.awt.Color classes) were eliminated by folks from the JDK team at Sun..
Dmitri
Java2D Team
[...] Comments « Java is finally Free and Open [...]
openSUSE 11.0 that was released on June 19th also includes openjdk 1.6.0. And even icedtea 1.7 too.
Unfortunately, the 1.6 plugin does not seem to work well in Firefox x86_64. I have 2 sites that I use with java plugins and none of these work in Firefox with the openjdk 1.6 plugin. They only work in konqueror 3.5.
Hi,
I have Fedora 9 installed, and I did not notice any updates to IcedTea. Fedora has been released for over a month now, I wonder why you made this great announcement so late
Anyway, I still can’t install glassfish using icedtea/openjdk - neither on ubuntu nor fedora 9. Is this a glassfish problem, or an icedtea/openjdk problem?
Thanks,
Rohan.
A big huzzah and many thanks to the developers who made this possible.
[...] Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). What about Red Hat?read more | digg story This post has been read 1 [...]
This is good news. Another great score for open source and greater options for end-users. Kudos to the great team
[...] Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). What about Red Hat?read more | digg [...]
[...] http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196 « előző | macat — 2008. 06. 20. 14:01 [...]
>> Wade Mealing: Open source is the first step to an open process,
>> now you can talk to them on their public lists about their design
>> decision. Without open source, you had no choice, now at least
>> you can fix it for -yourself-.
I believe you are missing the point. Yes, now we can fix it ourselves, and wait for them to either a) never accept it; b) accept it on their corporate managed time line; c) roll our own distribution and subsequently fork the project (IcedTea).
The language, the spec, the process is not open. Only the code is so we can see why something isn’t working when it’s breaking. It’s no different than Adobe’s ActionScript3, except their user base knows they aren’t really supporting OSS and the ideologies.
First of all, congratulations to all involved for this achievement. It’s great to see this finally happen.
I’d just like to address MET’s comment. I don’t know about ‘OSS and the ideologies’ but in terms of the four freedoms which are the foundations of Free Software, I believe the OpenJDK project upholds them all:
(from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
IcedTea allows the OpenJDK source to be built and run in a completely Free software environment by bootstrapping via GCJ.
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
You can download the source code now from http://openjdk.java.net.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Fedora and Ubuntu’s inclusion of IcedTea6/OpenJDK6 embodies this. The community has taken the source code, fixed bugs and added improvements. The web plugin is one example, the zero assembler port another which allows e.g. a ppc version of OpenJDK.
Releasing the source code is (relatively) the easy part. Building a community around it is the difficult part. But I believe this has already begun to happen, and IcedTea is certainly part of that community. The JSR process also needs work; I believe that is the next mission for the Free Java community.
That seems like good news for you java people. It still doesnt matter because c# is way better and faster than java. Java is dying to c#…
[...] course the real news was that Red Hat (and many others) were even given the opportunity to be part of the evolution of [...]
@Casey G
I would never write Microsoft off - they’re an incredibly powerful company with deep pockets and a willingness to use illegal and dubious business practicies to achieve their goals.
However, right now - C# and the whole .NET platform is dependent on the success of Vista which may turn out to be one of the greatest engineering disasters of all time.
Also, never underestimate the power of the rest of the world - which is who Microsoft competes with.
[...] Fedora 9 (x86 and x86_64) passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility Kit (TCK). What about Red Hat?read more | digg [...]
[...] read more [...]
Great news! So does this mean that I won’t have to keep developing for 1.5 because Apple can’t get their act together and keep up their Java releases? No Java 6 for Tiger? C’mon, Apple. Why you gotta be that way? :p
@Rohan: IcedTea is dead — read Release Notes at http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f9/en_US/sn-Java.html#sn-OpenJDK-Replaces-IcedTea for more info.
@Silviu Marin-Caea: what is the packaged IcedTea good for when you have real Java?
[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] Rich Shaple von JBoss in seinem Blog schreibt, denkt man zur Zeit darüber nach, das OpenJDK 1.6 mit dem nächsten Update (5.3) in Red Hats [...]
[...] ist endlich frei und offen. Oder doch nicht? (Lesenswerte Blogbeiträge zu Suns Open Source-Strategie.) [(Schon wieder) [...]
I don’t get what Sun is expecting from this? What is the return here?
Everyone knows that opensource/gpl is where projects go to die.
[...] of options open source developers enjoy today. Sure, as the first full-blooded Java implementation available under a 100 percent Free Software license, RedHat’s IcedTea pushes aside open source objections to developing in Java. Yet, McAllister [...]
@Vista SP1 - I don’t know - ask Sun. Btw you’re bizarre web-site where you attempt (and fail) to take pot shots at FOSS is running on Linux, Apache and Wordpress - all 100% FOSS. Too funny.
@Vista SP1 - Doh!. OK, now I’ve had some caffeine I see the serious side of your web-site - now I’m a believer. Please advise how I can “yum install Vista” - it doesn’t seem to be working on Fedora9.
- Rich
The one advantage of open source software that no one has mentioned so far is the ability to get things done that people ask for. For instance, there’s one particular thread on the SUN java forums that has been in place and updated almost weekly for nearly 8 years now — people have wanted the browser plugins for 64-bit software. Sun keeps claiming it’s not important, despite thousands of requests for it. What exactly *is* important, if customer wants aren’t?! Within a few months of opening up Java source, IceTea had done what Sun couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do for nearly a decade. I say, “Hurray for open source! Keep it coming!”
[...] Java is finally Free and Open Finishing up IcedTea. The other important thing here is the talk of what an open JDK means to someone like RedHat: being able to optimize stacks mo’ better. (tags: java rhat redhat tabsweep optimization stacks redmonkclients IcedTea opensource virtualization) [...]
[...] June 28, 2008 by skybert I’d like to thank everyone involved in walking the last mile of creating a true free distriubution of the Java 6 platform. [...]
[...] Test Compatibility Kit (TCK)との100%の互換性の実現に至ったことが発表された(source)。正式に、初の完全なオープンソース(GPLライセンス) [...]
[...] read more [...]
[...] now, thanks to IcedTea and the efforts of the broader Open Java community, Java is truly open. As Rich Sharples wrote, “The latest OpenJDK binary included in Fedora 9 passes the rigorous Java Test Compatibility [...]
[...] Similarly, Sun Microsystems, the company that probably kicked off the revolution in so-called open system found that it too had created a demand it was not ready to fulfill. Also around the year 2000, customers started to demand all of the benefits of openness, including access to the source code, free rights to modify it, and the ability to build new commercial products on that code without requiring special permissions from Sun. Customers who valued what they got from GNU and Linux could not accept Sun’s “we understand what you want but we’re not going to give it to you, yet” approach. Like Starbucks, the Java that Sun sold did not jive with Sun’s brand, either. Over time, Sun has offered more and more software under the GPL (and other open source licenses), and while many strict free software folks have not accepted Sun’s work as being fully free in the past, yesterday I received some encouraging news: Java is finally free and open. [...]
[...] Fonte: http://blog.softwhere.org/archives/196 [...]
[...] as TCK compliant. Meaning it can carry the “100% Java(TM)” moniker. Rich Sharples has a nice write-up (with a second part answering the blogosphere): In June, 2007 - Red Hat launched the IcedTea [...]
it is really good for the future of java and open source