Java (Re: Since ubuntu is pushing python, a good python IDE should be available)

Fábio Mendes niels_bohr at uol.com.br
Sat Nov 6 15:25:24 CST 2004


> The default Ubuntu installation will only include software meeting the
> Ubuntu License Policy, with an exception for certain drivers necessary in
> order to allow users to install and use Ubuntu.
> 
> http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/licensing/
> 
> It would be a stronger step forward, I think, if we were to work on tightly
> integrating one of the free Java runtime environments.

What about putting those on universe/multiverse? There should probably
have no IDE in the DesktopSeed, there is no reason to put Eclipse in a
default install. I understand the fact that ideally software should be
conformant to ubuntu licencing policies, but when there is no free
alternative, it would be nice to provide a non-free one. The same goes
for flash support and some media codecs. A broken system is not just
about non-working hardware, but also about non-working software.

Don't get me wrong, I have deep respect to any tech decisions made by
Ubuntu staff, and I think Ubuntu's merits stands for it. We can't
neglet, though, that in some domains OSS has no offer ready yet, or have
only very broken ones. JM is currently one area which lacks a production
quality OSS implementation. Since (unfortunatelly, for me) java use had
become widespread on the web, many users will require it for dayly
computer usage (like e-baking, for sure).

I'm pretty sure sun won't change significavelly it's distribution
policies and realeases java in a free licence. If we want to ship such a
piece of software (a Java VM), which seems good to the end user, the
only kind of agreement I see for the issue is that Ubuntu makes far more
compromises than sun. One thing that seems reasonable to me is that we
can repackage the sun j2sdk/re with Ubuntu/Debian specific
configurations, leaving all IP/EULAS/etcs in the intent places and
asking for the user accept Sun's end user licence in the install phase.
I would be glad to help writting an open letter for sun asking for this,
but I don't work for Canonical so I can't represent Ubuntu comunity in
regarding this issue. It's an important matter IMHO, and I'd like to see
such an effort being crafted in the list or in the wiki.

Thanks
-Fabio



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