sun-in-night-time.html (7594B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays licensing traps" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time - GNU Project - Free 7 Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/sun-in-night-time.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 15 <h2>The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time</h2> 16 17 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 18 Stallman</a></address> 19 20 <div class="infobox"> 21 <p>We leave this web page in place for the sake of history, 22 but as of December 2006, Sun is in the middle of <a 23 href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-welcomes-gpl-java.html">rereleasing 24 its Java platform under the GNU GPL</a>. When this license change is 25 completed, we expect Sun's Java will be free software.</p> 26 </div> 27 <hr class="thin" /> 28 29 <p><i>May 24, 2006</i></p> 30 31 <p> 32 Our community has been abuzz with the rumor that Sun has made 33 its implementation Java free software (or “open 34 source”). Community leaders even publicly thanked Sun 35 for its contribution. What is Sun's new contribution to the 36 FLOSS community? 37 </p> 38 39 <p> 40 Nothing. Absolutely nothing—and that's what makes the 41 response to this non-incident so curious. 42 </p> 43 44 <p> 45 Sun's Java implementation remains proprietary software, just 46 as before. It doesn't come close to meeting the criteria for 47 <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software</a>, or the 48 similar but slightly looser criteria for open source. Its 49 source code is available only under an NDA. 50 </p> 51 52 <p> 53 So what did Sun actually do? It allowed more convenient 54 redistribution of the binaries of its Java platform. With 55 this change, GNU/Linux distros can include the nonfree Sun 56 Java platform, just as some now include the nonfree nVidia 57 driver. But they do so only at the cost of being nonfree. 58 </p> 59 60 <p> 61 The Sun license has one restriction that may ironically 62 reduce the tendency for users to accept nonfree software 63 without thinking twice: it insists that the operating system 64 distributor get the user's explicit agreement to the license 65 before letting the user install the code. This means the 66 system cannot silently install Sun's Java platform without 67 warning users they have nonfree software, as some GNU/Linux 68 systems silently install the nVidia driver. 69 </p> 70 71 <p> 72 If you look closely at Sun's announcement, you will see that 73 it accurately represents these facts. It does not say that 74 Sun's Java platform is free software, or even open source. It 75 only predicts that the platform will be “widely 76 available” on “leading open source 77 platforms.” Available, that is, as proprietary 78 software, on terms that deny your freedom. 79 </p> 80 81 <p> 82 Why did this non-incident generate a large and confused 83 reaction? Perhaps because people do not read these 84 announcements carefully. Ever since the term “open 85 source” was coined, we have seen companies find ways to 86 use it and their product name in the same sentence. (They 87 don't seem to do this with “free software,” 88 though they could if they wanted to.) The careless reader 89 may note the two terms in proximity and falsely assume that 90 one talks about the other. 91 </p> 92 93 <p> 94 Some believe that this non-incident represents Sun's 95 exploratory steps towards eventually releasing its Java 96 platform as free software. Let's hope Sun does that some 97 day. We would welcome that, but we should save our 98 appreciation for the day that actually occurs. In the mean 99 time, the <a href="/philosophy/java-trap.html">Java Trap</a> 100 still lies in wait for the work of programmers who don't take 101 precautions to avoid it. 102 </p> 103 104 <p> 105 We in the GNU Project continue developing the 106 GNU Compiler for Java and 107 GNU Classpath; we made great progress in the past year, 108 so our free platform for Java is included in many major 109 GNU/Linux distros. If you want to run Java and have freedom, 110 please join in and help. 111 </p> 112 </div> 113 114 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 115 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 116 117 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 118 <div class="unprintable"> 119 120 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 121 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 122 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 123 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 124 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 125 126 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 127 replace it with the translation of these two: 128 129 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 130 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 131 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 132 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 133 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 134 135 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 136 our web pages, see <a 137 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 138 README</a>. --> 139 Please see the <a 140 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 141 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 142 of this article.</p> 143 </div> 144 145 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 146 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 147 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 148 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 149 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 150 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 151 document was modified, or published. 152 153 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 154 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 155 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 156 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 157 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 158 159 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 160 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 161 162 <p>Copyright © 2006, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 163 164 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 165 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 166 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 167 168 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 169 170 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 171 <!-- timestamp start --> 172 $Date: 2021/10/01 10:55:57 $ 173 <!-- timestamp end --> 174 </p> 175 </div> 176 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 177 </body> 178 </html>