Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by javajosh 1741 days ago
It's particularly confusing because "OpenJDK" used to be an independent group who's purpose was to build a fully open-source Java - and it was Apache licensed. Now, it seems that "OpenJDK" refers to a specification and/or working group which NO LONGER provides a build, instead relying on vendors to do so, and indeed the vendors have wide latitude about how they license it.

This is genuinely complicated, I'm not a lawyer or a software license expert, and I don't understand it. And honestly, based on some of the haughty and arrogant, but factually wrong, comments I've been seeing, I suspect that a lot of people think they understand it, but don't.
2 comments
boulos 1741 days ago
Which is exactly your point! The uncertainty/confusion is now super high due to Oracle's actions. It's literally fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

It's a bit like GPL and other open source licensing in the early days ("better not touch GPL code at all") rather than the now commonplace "Ahh, yes. No to AGPL, but GPL is fine since we won't distribute it. We'd prefer APL" practices.

I absolutely believe that experts in licensing understand the OpenJDK / Corretto / Microsoft's OpenJDK distro and so on. But it really did go from "yeah, openjdk is no problem" to "hmm, do we understand this?".

link
papercrane 1741 days ago
> "OpenJDK" used to be an independent group who's purpose was to build a fully open-source Java - and it was Apache licensed.

You've confused OpenJDK with Apache Harmony. The Harmony project dissolved in 2011, essentially being killed by IBM's decision to join the OpenJDK project instead.

link