The cat is out of the bag: Java will be released under the GPL. Joshua Marinacci writes: "I think it makes a lot of sense because it protects Sun's interest in preventing forks and also the community's interest in knowing that Java will forever be available in the public sphere. The GPL has always provided an option to fork just in case someone takes the code in a bad direction. Historically having this option available ensures that it never needs to actually be used, letting the community grow and thrive."
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Member since:2006-01-18
Mono is under the protective wing of the Open Patent initiative - there is no cloud covering it nowadays. If MS tries anything regarding it, they will be sued for violations of every patent under the Open Patent project that they violate.
All the same, I would like to extend a firm welcome to Sun and Java to the Free Software world 
Member since:2005-07-12
"Mono is under the protective wing of the Open Patent initiative - there is no cloud covering it nowadays. If MS tries anything regarding it, they will be sued for violations of every patent under the Open Patent project that they violate."
That's an excellent point, and it does add a degree of safety/assurance.
However, when Steve Ballmer is excplicitly saying that anything that is non Novell/SuSE is not safe from their patent litigation, one has to take pause.
The Open Patent initiative could certainly help, but just the thought of MS litigation is enough to scare off a lot of folks.
For better or worse, MS is an aggressive competitor, and will stop at nothing to crush it's competition. And it has a history of using FUD has a major weapon.
Fear and intimidation is a major part of MS modis operendi.
By contrast, Sun has a history of not being a FUD spinner, or patent litigator, or always trying to crush the competition. They've always been a technology company first, and mostly a good community citizen.
Plus Java has always been in the open, with the JCP, multiple vendor and open source implementations, and the promise of WORA.
MS is, always has been, and always will be, all about their Windows/Office franchise, and maintaining that monopoly, customer lock-in, and market dominance. They'll do anything to maintain it and strengthen it. That's the way corporations work, especially convicted monopolists like MS. This is not tin-foil stuff, or rabid anti-MS hatred, or pro Open Source zealotry. It's pure pragmatism, and acceptance of obvious reality.
Besides, while I think there are a lot positives about .Net/C# as a technology, I still think Java is vastly superior.
Edited 2006-11-13 17:14
Member since:2006-04-30
All the same, I would like to extend a firm welcome to Sun and Java to the Free Software world
Spikeb - Sun have been in the free software world for along time now. No other company has delivered more to the free software world then them period (eithen before GPL'ing Java). Most others are just Open Source pretenders.
Member since:
2005-07-12
Java being under the GPL is fantastic. It will accelerate adoption, collaboration, reduce Sun's huge R&D on Java (more people will now contribute), and make Java much much much more of fit with Linux.
That last point is especially important. Java and Linux are two great technologies that should go together like cookies and milk, but haven't really up until now due to license incompatibility. Now Linux distros will very easily be able to distribute both the JRE and the JDK as standard parts of their distros. This will mean more open source Java titles, more usage of JEE, more user/developer mindshare, and so on.
In other news, Java 6 is just around the corner. I've recently tried it, and it improves desktop Java (Swing performance, fonts, and look n feel) immensely.
Add to this the new JEE 1.5 spec, in particular EJB 3.0, and Java is seriously kicking some booty.
With all this, and the fact that Java is fully cross platform, .Net becomes a joke (no matter how nice the technology is), due to it not being cross platform, and Mono always being under the MS patent cloud.