On Sun, Feb 24, 2002 at 11:59:11PM -0600, Bob Tanner wrote: > Sun wishes to charge license fees for usage of the Windows and Linux > versions. Only the version for Sun's own operation system Solaris > will remain free. > > via /. > > This is so so stupid. They only reason I have even gotten some of > Real Time's customers to look at Star Office is because it was free. I think there must be an opportunistic attitude within Sun regarding its policies toward open-source and free software. In some cases, Sun appears to have supported open-source projects such as OpenOffice, NetBeans, and Jakarta-Tomcat. However, in other areas, Sun's stance toward open-source and free software is less than friendly (via theserverside.com): Apache on warpath over Java licence http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129351 Will You See Open Source J2EE Implementations? Not Likely. http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2002/02/13/osjava.html The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has some complaints about the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JCPA) associated with Sun's Java Community Process (JCP). I think some of the corporate players involved in the JCP are afraid that open-source J2EE servers such as JBoss and Enhydra Enterprise will gain popularity and cut into their market. Sun also recently launched a FUD attack against linux on the mainframe: http://www.sun.com/executives/realitycheck/reality-022002.html Meanwhile, Sun now views linux as a "tier 1" platform for Java, and has simultaneously released Windows, Linux, and Solaris varsions of the J2SE 1.4.0 SDK: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html Joel