Ross Burton points to some recent discussion on the JPackage mailing list that seems to indicate that IBM may be freeing their JVM and may have intentions of getting a version into the JPackage repository.
UPDATE: Speculation now that the weirdness around the rumored
IBM/Intel/OSDL announcement with dramatic and global implications
may be
related to IBM freeing Java and not IBM rewriting the Linux kernel
(wtf?). I don’t think it’s wise to make that correlation just yet but the
thought is out there, and freeing Java would certainly qualify as a major
announcement.
I want to stress again that this is all rumor and speculation and that no one has announced anything formally.
No word on licensing just yet. We can assume that if jpackage is going to
distribute this in binary form <shameless:plug>from their yum
repository</shameless:plug> that the license will meet the requirements of
the OSI. I'm crossing my fingers for GPL/LGPL but
the CPL is probably more likely. I imagine IBM may want to try to keep some
parity with their other OSS Java offerings (e.g. Eclipse).
All of this is still very much speculation.
Judge for yourself, here’s the first bit of leak that raised eyebrows:
Nicolas Mailhot: > Maybe that should wait until jpackage has their free > j2sdk done (I understand they are working on one) Well, this is supposed to be secret stuff;) Please don't block on it - there may someday be a redistributable jvm rpm at jpackage, and someday may even be next week, but the $VENDOR we're working with obviously has its own paying products higher on the priority list so it's taking some time...
And then later:
Nicolas Mailhot: > Since you posted to a public mailing list, is it still a > secret? That there is something in the works is not a big secret - we've got leaks before. As for the rest, I won't confirm any timetable (or even $VENDOR's name). I'll just say $VENDOR should and will be praised for trying to work with us. It's not always easy. > Can I quote you in my blog? Does the $Vendor have a > three letter name that starts with an I and ends with an > M and has a B in the middle? :) Since I've already said it's a commercial vendor I'll only confirm the three-letter name part;)
So, what’s the big deal? Isn’t Java free already? Well, no… err.. yes… It depends on who you ask. I've given my take in Java and Open Source but there are quite a few takes out there. Mine is, of course, the correct one and everyone else is wrong but you can believe what you want :)
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