Sun opens up source code for Java SE, Java ME under GPLv2 license

Once promised to make Java freely available, Sun Microsystems is eventually ready to release Java source code under a Linux-friendly license.

Sun, the leading maker of UNIX-based servers, said Monday that it had started to make its Java technology an open-source software project available for free on the Internet.

Sun is due to announce today the open sourcing of both of its Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME). It will put the code for the programming software under the version 2 of the General Public License (GPLv2), which governs Linux and a number of other open-source products.

Earlier in May, Santa Clara, California-based Sun had promised to make Java freely available, and since that time, company executives had been consulting with its associates and developers to reach a decision which license would best meet their needs.

At that time, Sun has opposed calls to open source Java, citing concerns that it would cause incompatibilities among "forked" versions of the code. The term "Forks" is used when groups have different opinions about how code should progress and take it from a single point along divergent paths.

This open-source Java project permits worldwide programmers to examine, modify, fix bugs and contribute new features in Java's underlying code. The move will contribute to the growth of Java and make it easier to bundle with Linux, said Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software.

"This is a milestone for the whole industry," Green said. "Not only are we making an influential and widely used software platform for the Web available under an open-source license, it also underscores Sun's commitment to changing the whole industry model for how software is enhanced and developed."

Created in January 1989, and then revised as GPLv2 in 1991, the widely used free software license GPL is popular in the free and open source software community, and is used by the Linux operating system, MySQLAB's database, and the Samba file-and-print server project.

According to Sun, it is making almost all of Java's source code available under the GNU General Public License. The same type of license also covers the distribution of the kernel of the popular open-source operating system Linux, a key rival of Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Sun is initially offering only two open source versions of Java under GPLv2, but it has planned to add another open source license, said Laurie Tolson, Sun's vice president of Java developer products and programs. Furthermore, Sun will continue to provide commercial versions of its Java technologies for those users looking for paid support, she said.

"The open-sourcing of this really means more - more richness of offerings, more capability, more applications that consumers will get to use," Green said. "The platform itself will become a place for innovation."

The world's 4 million Java developers now can get access to most of the source code for the standard, enterprise and mobile editions of Java. All the Java source code is likely to be released by March 2007. The move wraps up all Java technology that includes software which runs on handheld devices, PCs and servers.