[fmw]

This will be a nuisance, because e.g. Clojure just works better with the Sun Java packages. The Sun packages don't just have performance improvements, but the Clojure devs seem to be actively targeting them. Even if this might lead to improvements to the OpenJDK in the long term it is one hell of a nuisance to have to go around the operating system package management scheme for Java. The lesson is to actively mistrust Oracle and invest more time in solutions that are independent from that company.

[technomancy]

I use OpenJDK for Clojure development every day. The only difference I've seen vs Oracle's JDK is that the font rendering sometimes isn't as nice.

[fmw]

E.g. early versions of ClojureScript had a critical bug on the OpenJDK that gave me the impression that (many of) the core developers are using the Sun package and are optimizing for it. There is also the issue of performance, which is supposedly better with the Sun version, but I should benchmark that for my particular applications before making up my mind. What do you use in production? There is a fine line between an acceptable difference in terms of reliability and speed and being too finicky for production. I'd love to hear more about what you're using.

[rbanffy]

> gave me the impression that (many of) the core developers are using the Sun package and are optimizing for it.

I strongly advise anyone who targets Oracle's JDK to switch to OpenJDK.

[elangoc]

Can you elaborate on that?

[rbanffy]

When you have a proprietary implementation competing with an open, compatible, one, you can have two scenarios:

1- the proprietary implementation is the dominant one and the open implementation must lag behind its roadmap.

2- the open implementation is dominant and the proprietary vendors who want to compete with it have to offer a superset of its functionality in order to compete.

In case 1, you are at the mercy of the proprietary implementor (in this case, Oracle). In case 2, everybody is free to steer the evolution of the standard without fear of getting isolated in an incompatible niche.

And Oracle's #1 priority is Oracle's profit. They'll get it even if it means turning your life into hell.

[SkyMarshal]

For Ubuntu I expect someone will create a PPA for Sun Java. I don't know if there's anything similar for Redhat/Fedora/Cent but wherever it's possible, I expect that will be the workaround of choice.

[sciurus]

This won't happen because the license for future Oracle Java releases won't allow redistribution.

http://robilad.livejournal.com/90792.html

[Jach]

The way Gentoo handles this sort of thing (it does it with truecrypt) is keeping the ebuild and so forth around, but when it comes time to fetch the sources it will stop and tell you to go download the tar file from wherever it's usually at and stick it in the dist folder.

[drivebyacct2]

Someone will come along like sevenmachines and create a PPA with a "sun-java6-installer" to mirror the "flashplugin64-installer" that downloads the pack of binaries and installs them from Oracle's servers.

[veeti]

Sun/Oracle already provide RPM packages for Java.