Java is free as a bird
After announcing at JavaOne 2006, Java and it’s 6.5 million lines of code will become free software (which later became OpenJDK) last week open sourced Java passed the entire Java TCK (Test Compatibility Kit).
What does this mean?
It means that any Java technology company will be able to improve any part of Java framework.Due to the nature of GPL any derived work (i.e. improvement) is required to be released under the same license, thus maintaining the best-of-breed Java improvements to be available to anyone.
In other words, this is really good news for any Java developer and company with Java technological focus.
Richard Shaples from RedHat (full title: Director of Product Management at JBoss EAP) writes more about the history and what it means also plugging Linux distribution Fedora 9 as the first one to bundle completely free and open Java.
Go Java!
