Craig White wrote:
Maybe there should be something in /etc/alternatives...
Or maybe no one should have ever shipped an imitation java that doesn't
meet the spec and called it java in the first place.
Of course the issue is and has always been Sun's restrictive licensing
and if it weren't for the 'imitation java' as you call it, Sun might
never have decided to migrate Java to GPL...but they still aren't
there...
Why is the license an issue? The distribution doesn't have to include
everything to work with it.
Thus with those restrictions, there is no way that Fedora or Red Hat
would ever distribute it.
OK, there's this thing called the internet, where you can get things
from other places - places that are willing to distribute them.
Thus without the 'imitation java' (as you call
it), there wouldn't be a fully functioning OpenOffice.org, and no
Docbook XSL, no Tomcat, no Eclipse, etc.
OK, I could live with those not working until I install a java that
meets the official spec.
Thus with your logic, people would logically go to another distro that
either embraces restrictive licensed software or pisses on restrictive
licensing.
How about one that respects both other companies licenses and their own
users? As in making Sun java work when installed?
So while it may feel useful to bemoan the 'imitation java' aka, GCJ
version, it provides most of the functionality...and last I checked,
even the Sun Java '64' couldn't run applets.
I'm bemoaning calling it java. If you don't ship a fully conforming
java, don't execute it with the name java. And isn't the 64-bit applet
problem specific to Linux, not java?
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
