Apache, Sun Come To Terms On Open Source Java

rbeattie writes: "This morning at JavaOne it was announced during the keynote that Sun and Apache have come to an agreement securing the basic right to implement Java specifications in open source. Apache actually went as far as issuing a Press Release about it with information about the agreement. One of the cool things is that Sun actually agreed not only to change various licenses and contracts, release the testing code, but also to let qualifying non-profit open source groups use their 1800 support number while testing." (This is a followup to this earlier story indicating that such an agreement had been reached.)

About time!

[Anonymous Coward]

With the way Sun
was wavering, i was
wondering if they
would ever get to
completing this.
Sun and IBM may be
both acting in their
best intrestes, but
IBM seems to under-
stand enlightened
self intrest better.

good news for the Jakarta subprojects

[ubiquitin]

which are...
Alexandria [apache.org] the documentation project, Ant [apache.org] compiler, Avalon [apache.org] framework, BCEL [apache.org] binary library manipulator, Cactus [apache.org] test framework, Commons [apache.org] , to facilitate reusable java code, ECS [apache.org] for XML interfacing, James [apache.org] the mail server (think IMAP, POP, SMTP etc), Jetspeed [apache.org] the portal component, JMeter [apache.org], for performance testing, Log4J [apache.org] debugging methods, Lucene [apache.org] text search engine, ORO [apache.org] for perl style regular expressions and awk/sed shit (see regexp below for regexp style), POI [apache.org] which talks to M$ OLE, Regexp [apache.org] for java style regular expressions (see oro above for perl style), Slide [apache.org] WebDAV connectivity component, Struts [apache.org] to integrate with existing Java codebases, Taglibs [apache.org] for JSP custom code, Tomcat [apache.org] the all-important serving container, Turbine [apache.org] security layer, Velocity [apache.org] object oriented(?) theme engine, Watchdog [apache.org] validation tests. Please don't mod me down for all the links.

Each one is to a important Jakarta project and I sincerely wish that someone had explained to me what each one did instead of me having to plow through twenty web pages to get this information. As a side note, do these people know how to name projects or what?!?!!? For example, Turbine has subcomponents "Fulcrum" and "Torque".

Re:good news for the Jakarta subprojects

[angel'o'sphere]

Obviously you are nt a native english speare, s am I :-)

unfortunatly 50% of the comments to teh links are wrong or at elast missleading.

So one link: www.apache.org, would have been enough ....

Just one: "ant", thats not a compiler but a make tool.

Regards,
angel'o'sphere

Re:Thank you Sun!

[mjrKong]

why is it that when sun is being a "bad guy" it goes to the front page for everyone.. but when they are a "good guy" the article is just stuffed away in no where land..

everything is just so god damn negative these days..

Apache is grown up...

[software_non_olet]

...and being accepted by the industry as a partner of equal rights. A win - not against the strongest Sun we have ever seen, but anyway a good starting point for the "IE, Apache clash on web standards" recently discussed her at slashdot [slashdot.org]. Microsoft might not be as easy as Sun was, but strong sparring partners are good for the muscles .o)

will this improve free JRE's ?

[soopurman]

do you think this will have any effect on open source (free as in speech) java run time environments for desktop end users?

Re:will this improve free JRE's ?

[rutherford]

I hope this will happen. With this agreement and Jim Pick as the new maintainer of kaffe [kaffe.org] there is a good chance for a better free jre.
Which other free jre's are in development?

Good News

[4of12]

This shows that Sun is getting to be either a little bit more courageous about letting go of its tight grip on Java, or that it is getting enlightened about the best long term policy is towards Java.

This will help Java overall in the long term and is an important step for them if they ever hope to be able to battle the instant ubiquity that Microsoft .NET will get on rollout as part of what is called Windows.

It's a brave move, because the Apache folks provide a useful open source Java web platform that is less expensive than many commercial offerings. But this allows developers to get their feet wet without a cost barrier. Sun can focus on adding true value, such as more performance, nice IDEs, etc. that developers will want once they get established doing JSP.

Good move

[f00zbll]

Although this doesn't strengthen or weaken my own desire to use Java, it is good to see Sun playing nice. Apache has made great progress and jakarta is rapidly maturing. It does make my commitment to the apache group stronger, because they have demonstrated their position in the IT community.