Free Java implementations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about "free software" as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware.
Free Java implementations are software projects that reimplement Sun's Java technologies and are distributed under free software licences, thus making them free software / open source software.
As of early 2007, Sun's Java is non-free software, however, in November 13, 2006, Sun announced that they would soon release their Java implementation as free software under the GNU General Public License.
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[edit] Virtual machines or runtimes
Advocates of free and open source software refer to free or open source Java virtual machine software as free runtimes or free Java runtimes. This is contrasted with the proprietary nature of Sun Microsystems' "Java runtime" offerings. Examples of free runtimes include Kaffe, SableVM, gcj, and many others. Most free runtimes use GNU Classpath as their class library.
Some advocates in this movement prefer not to use the term "Java" as it has trademark issues associated with it. Hence, even though it is a "free Java movement", the term "free Java runtimes" is avoided by them.
[edit] Class library
GNU Classpath is the main free software class library for Java.
[edit] Compilers
- See also: GNU Compiler for Java
Several Java-compliant compilers exist as free software, most notably the GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ), but also Jikes and the Eclipse Java Compiler.
[edit] Application software
- OpenOffice.org can run with GCJ
- Azureus can run with GCJ
