Java problem

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2007-12-28 at 21:37 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Friday 28 December 2007, Les Mikesell wrote:
> >Cameron Simpson wrote:
> >>>>> Hi
> >>>>> I installed the jre from the file jre-6u3-linux-i586-rpm.bin and it
> >>>>> give me done with no prob , but there is no java file in /usr/bin/ ,
> >>>>> can any one suggest some thing about that ?
> >>>>
> >>>> ----
> >>>> look in /usr/java
> >>>>
> >>>> if you know what you want, you can create a symbolic link in /usr/bin
> >>>> but that should never be necessary.
> >>>
> >>> It's too bad that RedHat and Sun can't agree on where java should live.
> >>
> >> It's a third party RPM!
> >> Of course it should install out of the way!
> >> That way you can use Sun's RPM or another RPM, or both!
> >>
> >>> For earlier versions of fedora, jpackage.org had a way to fix this
> >>> breakage, but they seem to have stopped at FC6.
> >>
> >> Maybe there should be something in /etc/alternatives...
> >
> >Or maybe no one should have ever shipped an imitation java that doesn't
> >meet the spec and called it java in the first place.
> 
> +5 at least, Les.
----
I can't see any reason why you should have more than 1 vote

Of course the issue is and has always been Sun's restrictive licensing
and if it weren't for the 'imitation java' as you call it, Sun might
never have decided to migrate Java to GPL...but they still aren't
there...

from my installation of jdk-1.6.0.0.3 under LICENSE...

3. RESTRICTIONS. Software is confidential and copyrighted.
Title to Software and all associated intellectual property
rights is retained by Sun and/or its licensors. Unless
enforcement is prohibited by applicable law, you may not
modify, decompile, or reverse engineer Software. You
acknowledge that Licensed Software is not designed or
intended for use in the design, construction, operation or
maintenance of any nuclear facility. Sun Microsystems, Inc.
disclaims any express or implied warranty of fitness for
such uses. No right, title or interest in or to any
trademark, service mark, logo or trade name of Sun or its
licensors is granted under this Agreement. Additional
restrictions for developers and/or publishers licenses are
set forth in the Supplemental License Terms.

Thus with those restrictions, there is no way that Fedora or Red Hat
would ever distribute it. Thus without the 'imitation java' (as you call
it), there wouldn't be a fully functioning OpenOffice.org, and no
Docbook XSL, no Tomcat, no Eclipse, etc.

Thus with your logic, people would logically go to another distro that
either embraces restrictive licensed software or pisses on restrictive
licensing.

So while it may feel useful to bemoan the 'imitation java' aka, GCJ
version, it provides most of the functionality...and last I checked,
even the Sun Java '64' couldn't run applets.

Craig