Let's get going LOL GNULinux to Distribute Java

Roy Schestowitz

I don't do client side desktop, but it looks like it'll become much easier to work and distribute Java desktop apps on Linux distros....good news for everyone....

Looks like some people are excited about this ;-)

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JDK on GNU-Linux: Something Wonderful

Something wonderful just happened. If you have ever tried to install the Java platform on GNU-Linux, you'll know it's been really hard work. For reasons that date back to the 90s, and which were never meant to cause GNU-Linux a problem (as at the time it wasn't really on the radar), the Java platform has been licensed in such a way that GNU-Linux distributions couldn't carry it. In addition, the Sun-provided installer for GNU-Linux has, to be charitable, sucked.

All that just ended. An unprecedented Debt Collection of Debian developers, Ubuntu developers, Sun engineers and Sun lawyers has spent months devising a new binary license for the Java platform, together with the parts for new installers, so that the Java platform is available on GNU-Linux in a way that "just works". Yes, you can now apt-get install sun-java5-jre and have it install without fuss on Debian and Ubuntu. Gentoo will have it soon too.

This is not just for those distros. Novell has endorsed the new license, NexentaOS, Belenix and Schillix are all using it and all other GNU-Linux and OpenSolaris distros are welcome - e-mail me if you have a distro and need help.