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More on Sun's views on the meaning of open source, from a write-up of an interview with Jonathan Schartz in Open Source News.
The obvious question, then, was why Sun doesn't "Free up" their version of Java, and the answer is that Java is already "open," but not under a more liberal license because Sun doesn't want to open up the potential for a fork. The same fear is not present in the OpenSolaris situation because Solaris is more closely defined and controlled by Sun, while Java can be shaped by external forces easier, and so Sun doesn't want to take that risk. With over 2 billion devices worldwide running Java Sun is 100% committed to ensuring that anything 'stamped' Java is compatible. Folks really depend on that assurance. Schwarz also reinforces the idea that being a good member of the "open source community," as that would be defined by the more ideological elements of that community, and being a profitable enterprise are not compatible goals:
He believes that Red Hat locks Enterprise customers in, just like Microsoft does, by steadily moving away from the LSB, by patching and forking code (including using a very non-standard Linux kernel) and so applications get certified or only work in the Red Hat codebase and no other Linux distro. Such an example is Oracle, where they do not support any Linux distro other than Red Hat-based ones. Meanwhile, Newsforge has a piece on Windows developers share open source philosophy that asks:
Does the open source community embrace any group that chooses to develop and distribute code freely? If so, then the folks at OpenNETCF.org must be part of that open source community, even though they are all loyal Windows users.
OpenNETCF.org members develop extensions for the .Net compact framework and share the source code with anyone who wants it and is willing to agree to the license terms. The code license is the same "shared source" license that got Microsoft some play on Slashdot earlier this year. The developers at OpenNETCF.org say they are working in the spirit of the open source movement.
posted by James DeLong @ 10:58 AM | General
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