ACADEMIA

Historic Collaboration Makes Java Technology Broadly Available On Leading Open Source Platforms -- Sun Microsystems, the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, today announced that Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 5 is now available for redistribution by GNU/Linux and OpenSolaris operating system distributors under the new Operating System Distributor's License for Java (also known as the "Distro License for Java" or DLJ). Developed in consultation with, and for use by, the various GNU/Linux communities, the new license allows distributors to ship Sun's Java SE 5.0 Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) as installable packages for their operating systems. The open source development community is demonstrating enthusiastic support of this announcement. Several project teams are expected to announce plans to redistribute the JDK, packaged for use with their operating systems, including the Ubuntu, Gentoo and Debian distributions of GNU/Linux, NexentaOS, a hybrid operating system with an OpenSolaris kernel and GNU applications and both the Schillix and BeleniX versions of OpenSolaris. These popular open source distributions will help make the Java platform a foundation of innovation for open source development. "This new license shows that Sun and the Java technology world care about GNU/Linux and open source platforms and are willing to put aside philosophical differences and get down to business," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder and sponsor of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution, the most-downloaded GNU/Linux in the world for the last eight months. "This eliminates one of the biggest roadblocks to wider use of the Java platform on free and open source operating system platforms and makes Java technology a more attractive foundation on which to build new projects and innovations." "We are really pleased to see Sun's increasing involvement in the free software community, from the opening of the Solaris Operating System source and now the re-licensing of Java technology to be compatible with GNU/Linux distributions, and are looking forward to building stronger ties with the Sun community in the future", said Anthony Towns, Debian Project Leader. Sun is also opening a new community project on Java.net (its Web site) to serve as a clearinghouse of information and best practices for delivering compatibly packaged JDK bundles on GNU/Linux and OpenSolaris. The DLJ leaves communities free to define the packaging, installation and support for the JDK within their distribution, creating new opportunities to add value for both developers and users, while maintaining Java's "write once, run anywhere" compatibility promise. One well-known effort to repackage Sun's JDK for GNU/Linux distributions, the Blackdown Project (its Web site), has generously agreed to join the new jdk-distros project on java.net and contribute their Debian packaging code to this initiative. More info on Ubuntu (its Web site), Debian GNU/Linux (its Web site), Gentoo Linux (its Web site), NexentaOS (its Web site) and OpenSolaris (its Web site) , Schillix (its Web site) and BeleniX (its Web site) For more information on the DLJ please visit the jdk-distros project at its Web site.