On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, Michael Torrie wrote:
On Tue, 2006-11-07 at 23:48 -0700, Michael Torrie wrote:
On Wed, 2006-11-08 at 06:14 +0000, Jason Holt wrote:
On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, Michael Torrie wrote:
Of course the Java class libraries are of necessity not under the GPL.
(Neither are the GNU Class Libraries). So it will remain to be seen
Why is that?
Because if the class libraries were GPL then you could only produce GPL
programs in Java, as all Java programs have to link against the class
libraries at runtime. The GNU Classpath libraries are produced under
the GPL with a special exception[1] to allow linking your external
programs against these libraries. This is really an extension of the
built-in GPL exception clause that says a GPL'd app can link against
non-GPL'd system-shipped runtime libraries and vice versa.
That makes sense. Weren't class libraries the hard part in trying to build a
Free Java system? How does Sun license theirs? Is it non-viral for programs
that link in, but non-Free for people to download? Is that we've always had
to download the jre from sun (or pick up jikes from ibm)?
-J
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