[Kde-java] Should we ditch support for Sun's JDK in favour of Free Software?

[Richard Dale]

On Friday 16 April 2004 13:22, Werner Punz wrote:
> Richard Dale wrote:
> >On Friday 16 April 2004 08:02, Dominique Devriese wrote:
> >>Anyway, it's of course up to you and the other kdejava developers to
> >>decide on this.  In the end, I don't think it matters much, people
> >>wanting to use the java bindings will not have too much trouble using
> >>gcj/gij, unless they really want to use the latest JDK features, I
> >>guess.
> >
> >Well I develop on Linux PowerPC which is stuck on jdk 1.3.1, and probably
> > a dead port. There's no such thing as latest features for me, and I
> > couldn't use any 1.4 specific ones, let alone 1.5.
>
> Richard, have you checked out the Blackdown VM lately
> I am not sure if they have PPC binaries for Linux but
> the sourced probably are compilable.
But it isn't Free/Open Source software, and you're are expected to work as an 
unpaid volunteer with all sorts of restrictions. I'm sure a PowerPC 1.4 port 
would be much more work than compiling the sources, as someone else would 
have already done it. Free software just doesn't have that problem - pretty 
much all of it runs just fine on PowerPC, but with the jdk we are second 
class citizens.

> >Sun are behaving strangly at the moment, and as they flail around trying
> > to make money out of java, and they could even start charging for the jdk
> > if you develop commercial apps with it. They're writing a closed source
> > 3D desktop instead of gnome, a swing app called Glow as a Evolution
> > replacement, while other sun employees are working on gnome itself. I
> > think I've been reading too many gnome blogs..
>
> Probably, Sun always has behaved strangely, but bear in mind and most
> Gnome blogs simply never name that. Sun does not have full control over
> java anymore, a consortium, the JCP has it.
> And even normal people can participate. Btw. the Sun Java sources are
> reachable for everyone you just have to wade throug a lot of legal mumbo
> jumbo to get your hands on them.
But you can't do anything with them, only "look, but don't touch". 

-- Richard