Richard Stallman's shackles: The open source Java acid test?

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Only 6 distros are listed as having only free software

http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html#FreeGNULinuxDistributions

Only DyneBolic is a very well known one.

Several things here;

1. FOSS developers are not eschewing the Java language. Go look on sourceforge at how many projects are written in Java - it's a lot.

2. What the FSF is doing is writing their own Free Java Virtual Machine.

3. The FSF is doing the same with Flash with the Gnash project.

4. Some commercial distros, such as Linspire, already include Java.

5. FOSS/FLOSS is not only Free software. The Acronym stands for Free (Libre) Open Source Software. Open Source software is a set of software where the source is available and in some way modifiable.

Free software is certainly a subset of that definition but Free software goes beyond that and requires that the software be not only modifiable but that you and people whom you pass the software along to have the same Freedom to view/modify the source code and make derivatives +distribute those derivatives that you do and is licensed in such a way that if you do not pass those freedoms along you yourself do not have that freedom.

Posted by: Edward Meyers   Posted on: 11/11/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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