Sun Microsystems and open-source software maker JBoss Group have resolved a long-standing dispute over a key Java standard.
Sun, JBoss Settle Java Dispute
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
so that people can have a fully configured web environment out of the box?
They already do. Commercial versions of Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE include the Java runtime at least if not the SDK as well. It is the choice of these distros to not include non-free software on their free download versions.
The is always kaffe. I think this is what MDK uses by default?
Kaffe is half-baked, it is not serious solution for pros.
Slackware has shipped a version of Java since version 8.0 (April 2001).
Commercial versions of Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE include the Java runtime at least if not the SDK as well. It is the choice of these distros to not include non-free software on their free download versions.
Does that make Linux distributions sort of like shareware then? You can get a partial version for free, but for the complete package, you have to pay.
Not really. Unlike shareware, you can still install Java on your own and get the functionality you require. And most shareware packages are time limited or even if they aren’t functionality limited, they limit what you can legally do with the program (i.e. no working in a commercial environment). There are no such restrictions with Linux.
I’m happy for Marc and the crew, they’ve worked hard for this and Sun is really starting to be more flexible. which is good.