More Sun news: Sun promises to open-source Java

[Scott]

On 05/18/2006 07:53 PM, * Chanchao spake thusly:
> On Thu, 2006-05-18 at 14:56 -0400, Andrew Zajac wrote:
> 
>> Yes.  So does Sun deserve to be booed, cheered or just get a few golf
>> claps?
> 
> How about a big shrug of the shoulders? Typical case of companies
> open-sourcing something only when they're with their backs to the wall /
> facing the abyss.   I've never seen Java software of any size/complexity
> that wasn't bloat-city. 

I don't see Sun as having their backs against the wall.  After all they
have released OpenSolaris.  I could be wrong, but isn't that to Sun what
Fedora Core is to Red Hat?  That's what I've gathered.

Sun has been hounded by all kinds of people for years to Open Source
Java. And they resisted. But back then they hadn't released any Solaris
source code either.  I see it as a (welcome) change of attitude.


> Limewire came close I guess.  (Not saying that this is good software by
> whatever standard, but it did 'work'.)

You mean the commercial version and the "free" version? Was that open
source? I don't even remember.  I never cared much for Limewire.
Especially for Linux. There are better options.

> 
> Anyway it's moderately useful because it makes installation on Ubuntu
> possible for people with a CLI-allergy.  So that just leaves MP3 and
> Flash. :)

Flash is in the works, I don't expect we'll ever see MP3 open-sourced.
Besides, we have OGG. :-)


-- 
	Scott
www.angrykeyboarder.com
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