It's rather a long thread now, but I think we must have the patience to explain and promote key principles again and again. Am Samstag, den 29.12.2007, 18:17 -0600 schrieb Les Mikesell: > I'm asking why fedora chooses not to be compatible with the reference > version of java. And why it ships something that executes with the name > java that probably doesn't pass the compatibility tests. Simply the wrong questions. Fedora did not choose "not to be compatible with..." but Fedora choosed not to include an non-free program (i.e. Sun's Java) And Fedora did not choose "not to be compatible with ..." but choosed to support the development of a truly free alternative which is (rsp. was) intended to achieve compatibility, but needed time for development and testing. Those who need a reference-compatible version have to install a Java distribution outside the Fedora repositories. And there are provisions that you can do that without conflicts with the Fedora (test) version. So you can develope (or simply run) against the reference version and you can test (and support the devel of) the truly free alternative in parallel. That's the Fedora way. And regarding the file locations: it is not part of the reference. And when you engage a search engine of your choice you will find a lot of discussios in the past about problems with the file layout Sun choosed to use. Peter
