On 2003/02/26 08:43:44, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > The Free Software Definition is kept at > > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html and is > > linked from the front page > > of the Plucker web site at the words "Free > > Software". > > > Plucker is Free software. > > Sun Java is not. > > The Sun Java licence also has a nasty legal > > timebomb, the termination > > clause. > > I concur 100%. There was a time when AvantGo was free > in price, but the licence isn't GPL, so the screws can > be turned later on if need be. AvantGo started their > fees on distribution of channels >8 users, once their > financial situation worsened. Sun unfortunately is > also in hard times and doesn't look like things are > about to reverse anytime soon. I wonder if they will > convert Java to GPL, or not.
I'd like to make sure my notion of Free Software meshes with other people's... (All "Free" references here are the free-as-in-freedom kind.) A Java program can be released under the GPL. However, is that Java program Free Software? To be Free Software, I think it has to be able to built using Free tools and run in a Free environment. (That's my interpretation, at any rate.) Given that, I'd think a Java program could only be considered Free Software if it compiled and ran using GCJ and Kaffe or GCJ to native code. (Compiling non-free bytecode classes to native code doesn't count.) (I'm not suggesting that JPluck try to do that. I don't think the Classpath library is sufficient yet and I love JPluck the way it is!) Similary, I'd think a Palm OS program (or a Windows program) could only be considered Free Software it it ran on a Free OS in addition to the Palm OS. The program would be Free, but the Palm OS version wouldn't be. It needs a non-Free environment to run and it requires the non-Free Palm OS SDK to build. I think I heard there's a gtk version of the viewer. Is that true? This is probably mincing words and there's probaly really a continuum of Free notions. I get a headache if I start trying to think about how the hardware, BIOS, and firmware fits it. _______________________________________________ plucker-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-list
