PeterI really wish I hadn't missed this announcement (unfortunately I got side tracked by something else and missed the live webcast), but, nevertheless, Sun has now officially published the J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition), J2ME (Micro Edition) and the J2EE (Enterprise Edition) under the GNU General Public Licence (version 2).
What this means for those not acquainted with Java is that Linux distributors (and other free software projects) will now officially be allowed and free to distribute the official incarnation of the Java platform (it's a software development platform under which there are loads of applications) with GPL systems.
This hopefully should open the door to all those open source Java applications that require Sun's Java to be pre-packaged and working out of the box with Linux and other free software operating systems. This means software like the Azureus BitTorrent client and the RSSOwl feed reader.
Also, it's good news as it shows that once again, Sun Microsystems are committed to the FOSS development model. They already open sourced Star Office to become OpenOffice.org, and are in the process of opening their Solaris operating system in the form of OpenSolaris. With Java being probably the most prominent Sun product in the market right now (it might not be number one on the desktop, but it's massive for rich applications on mobile devices), this certainly is quite a big thing - for FOSS and for Sun.
Anyone for a cup of Free Java?
