Σίγουρα όλοι ακούσατε οτι η επίσημη Sun Java (jdk & jvm) διατίθεται πλέον open source υπό την GPL. Αυτό που ισως δεν έγινε ευρέως γνωστό είναι πως κρίσιμο ρόλο στην απόφαση επιλογής της άδειας ήταν η συμφωνία Novel - Microsoft προ ημερών!
By admitting that one of the strongest motivations to select the GPL
was the announcement made last week by Novell and Microsoft, suggesting
that free and open source software wasn't safe unless a royalty was
being paid. As an executive from one of those companies said, "free has
to have a price."
That's nonsense.
Free software can be free of royalties, and free of impediments
to broadscale, global adoption and deployment. Witness what we've done
with Solaris, and now, what we've done with Java. Developers are free
to pick up the code, and create derivatives. Without royalty or
obligation.
Those that say open source software can't be safe for customers - or
that commercially indemnified software can't foster community - are
merely advancing their own agenda. Without any basis in fact.
They're also fighting a rising tide.
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/fueling_the_network_effect
Προσωπικά με άφησε ευχάριστα έκπληκτο η απόφαση της GPL (δεν περίμενα να το τολμήσουν). Οι συνέπειες της απόφασης αυτής προβλέπω οτι θα είναι τεράστιες και στα επόμενα 2-5 χρόνια θα γίνει η default πλατφόρμα ανάπτυξης software σε οτιδήποτε non-microsoft (ανυπομωνώ να δώ playstation 3 port!).