Sun Java Finally Open Source

July 12th, 2008 14:31 pm | by Ed |

Good news for Linux users, According to a recent Slashdot article, Sun Microsystems is finally moving on a decision to open-source Java.

Once it’s done and released, this will clear the way for Open source linux distributions like Debian to be able to include Sun Java in their distributions.

Apparently Sun has spend a LOT of time negotiating with various companies and software writers that own parts of the code that makes up Java. Most, it seems, have been eventually willing to open-source their code, which allows sun to keep it in their new open source version.

Other companies and software writers haven’t been so willing to open source their code and so Sun has had to rewrite those parts of Java from scratch

The last two holdouts were code involved with raster graphics and 2D graphics and a sound-related component within Java.

The first turned out to be owned by a company that didn’t want it released as open source but after some negotiations agreed to open source the code.

The second is joining the ranks to code bits that are being completely rewritten

The end result ought to be showing up soon and we can finally welcome Sun Microsystems to the Open Source community.

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