A suggestion: Why not set Sun's JDK as the default one?

[Glenn Holmer]

On Thu, 2008-10-16 at 13:03 -0300, Derek Broughton wrote:
> yueyu lin wrote:
> 
> Now even JDK's
> > source codes are open-sourced, I really can't find any clues that the
> > Sun's JDK can't be the default. 
> 
> It can, but because of licensing it couldn't when Hardy was released. 

I agree with the OP that Sun's Java should be the default (with the
option for OpenJDK if you're squeamish).  In fact, I think it should be
installed out-of-box.  If proprietary video drivers are installed by
default, then Java certainly should be.

The "distro license" was available as far back as 2006:

http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-05/sunflash.20060516.4.xml

And Sun's Java was already available in Ubuntu 7.04:

http://www.ubuntu.com/news/java-stack-included-in-ubuntu

Although note Mr Shuttleworth's comment that "As Java components are
released under free software licenses, we will consider these components
for inclusion in the core of Ubuntu".

But Sun's Open Source version of Java (OpenJDK) was available by the
time 8.04 was released; I even saw Rich Green brag about it at JavaOne
last spring:

http://lyonlabs.org/green-java-linux.jpg

I did also see a presentation there by the OpenJDK team where they
mentioned that (from my notes) 4% of the code was still binary plugs
(e.g. graphics rasterizer, font rasterizer, imaging APIs, sound engine,
crypto providers, SNMP) that had not yet been replaced with Open Source
equivalents.

But like I said, if we do it for video drivers, we should definitely do
it for Java, especially since Sun is doing everything in its power to
make it free (unlike closed-source hardware drivers).

-- 
"After the vintage season came the aftermath - and Cenbe."
Glenn Holmer  (Q-Link: ShadowM)  http://www.lyonlabs.org