Re: [Savannah-hackers] Is there a limitation on the project type?

[Loic Dachary]

Patrick Ohnewein writes:
 > >    What you use to develop is of no consequence to anyone, except
 > > for yourself. When distributing the Free Software you produce, it is
 > > of great consequence to everyone if it can only be run using non free
 > > software.
 > 
 > Yes, that's my question. Is it acceptable if the Java program just runs 
 > under the SUN VM, which for what I know isn't free software. Or has it 
 > to run at least under one free VM?
 > 
 > 
 > >    Now, your question is probably : would java byte code
 > > generated by the sun jdk run on kaffe ? That I cannot say, maybe Nic
 > > can give you an answer.
 > 
 > Here I suspect I will not get running everything, I've read on there 
 > side they support Java 1.1, which is fairly old. Probably there isn't a 
 > swing available in kaffe, which is a big issue to applications with 
 > graphical user interface.
 > 
 > Of course I have first to run some tests to be sure, these are just 
 > speculations.
 > 
 > 
 > If it is possible for us to write a Java program, using SUNs VM and SUNs 
 > or IBMs compiler, it means we can open the project and even further 
 > projects. If we have to write the Java program to run under at least one 
 > free VM, I guess we will have some problems, because it seams the best 
 > free VM is kaffe and we suspect it not to be enough for our needs (I 
 > think about other bigger projects, not the chess prog). You probably 
 > could answer me now, that kaffe is free software, that I could get the 
 > source and extend it, but I don't know if I have the skills to do that.
 > 
 > So resume:
 > Can a java program, which *requires* SUNs VM, be free software?

        Please excuse me for the delay. Of course a java program that
requires a proprietary java suite *can* be Free Software. But a user
using this software would not be free. That's the point. 

        Microsoft attacks free software on two fronts : 1) FUD on the
GNU GPL, 2) push everyone to mix Free Software and non free software.
As it turns out SUN is incredibly successfull at that. Almost every
Java based Free Software *requires* to get a copy of SUN Java
products.  Free Software markets SUN projects, expands its base. And
SUN was sneaky enough to provide their Java VM gratis for most
individual users. That indeed discouraged many people to implement
their own Free Software Java suite. Why bother since we have a gratis
solution ?

        Hosting Free Software on Savannah that *requires* the user to
use proprietary software would contradict to the goals of the Free
Software movement. Savannah hosts and helps develop software that 
free their user.

        I hope you understand this rationale and that you'll help
Free Software Java suites to develop whenever you'll have the 
opportunity to do it. 

        Thanks for your time,

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Loic   Dachary         http://www.dachary.org/  address@hidden
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