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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Nice. But unfortunately, it's owned by Oracle. Use it, and you'll be constantly worrying what their lawyers are up to next.

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ZGC is part of OpenJDK and licensed under GPL.

Doesn't matter. Our legal system is such that Oracle can still burn you down, even if you are right.

> Our legal system is such that Oracle can still burn you down, even if you are right.

Do you happen to know of any real-world case that's similar to the scenario you've described?

Google v Oracle comes to mind.

Google should not have tried to screw Sun, they still had the option to buy Sun and choose not to.

Google basically won that, didn't they? Despite cloning another companies technology from scratch without paying any kind of licensing fees at all.

Didn't Google end up importing OpenJDK code?

Partially, you cannot pick a random jar from Maven Central and be confident that it will work on Android.

They only support part of the standard library, the OpenJDK parts have been cherry picked and not all are made available on the same Android version and then there are the bytecodes that were introduced since Java 7.

And for Java language support, you need to have Android Oreo version of ART as not all language features get desugared into older versions.

There is some AOSP activity related to Java 9, but so far Google has been silent if there will be any further improvements beyond Java 8.

How so in the case of using GPL code?

I'm not completely sure because I'm not familiar with the topic, but maybe it has to do with the fact that even when they sue you with an impossible-to-win lawsuit, they can destroy you with the cash you need to expend to even start defending yourself.

This can also destroy investment rounds for many startups.

Okay but they can do that even if you don't use Java.

And even if you don't do any bussiness with them. Oracle can sue anyone, they sue a lot. Like most companies they only do so if they think they can make a profit.

They could sue you, with a higher chance of winning, for using a python, a js or a ruby than for using OpenJDK derived code.

Oracle holds JavaScript trademark. Nobody's safe :)

I'm fine with calling it EczemaScript

Openjdk8 or get out! Seriously though I am concerned about the future of Java. I am keeping everything openjdk8 personally.

Why?

Basically oracle is attempting a hostile takeover of java. I'm keeping everything I do openjdk8 to avoid potential legal action.

You know that the majority of OpenJDK developers are Oracle employees, right?

Exactly. Some people think large software as programing language, compilers, GC etc can write itself. Or a few thousand dollar donation will be enough to pay to top engineers to keep working on it.

Oracle/Google/MS or Apple will continue to exert control on direction of languages they developed and open sourced because they continue to pay for majority of development expense.

I didn't know that. However, doesn't change my stance. Why would I upgrade to java 9 or 10 when I am at the mercy of oracle's lawyers?

Why aren't you at the same mercy with Java 8?

That’s not much of an answer. If anything, it seems to me like Oracle is seeding more control to the community. I could be wrong though, I don’t follow this stuff as close as some.

Coming sometime this winter they will require a license to use java 9 and up.

Below is a link for the downvoters and skeptics:

https://www.aspera.com/en/blog/oracle-will-charge-for-java-s...

Oh dear - the FUD is strong with this one. You’re only required to buy a commercial license if you use Oracle’s JDK beyond their free public updates timeframe and if you want the subsequent security patches etc from Oracle. There are also a whole bunch of $free (and $commercial) OpenJDK alternatives by Azul, RedHat, IBM, AdoptOpenJDK, distrust etc.

What does FUD mean in this context?

edit: I looked it up.

Your comment is obviously correct and valid. However, my stance is unchanged. I will stick to openjdk8 and avoid oracle regulatory influence.

Here is the rebuttal which shows that this is patently false for all actual use cases: http://blog.joda.org/2018/08/java-is-still-available-at-zero...

The first sentence from your link:

> Oracle has announced that, effective January 2019, Java SE 8 public updates will no longer be available for "Business, Commercial or Production use" without a commercial license.

Anything you can get now is still free and GPL open sourced. All they're doing is no longer publishing NEW CODE (in the form of backports and bug fixes) to the OpenJDK 8 branch. Instead they're publishing it to OracleJDK.

They're not trying to kill GPL anymore than Redhat is trying to Linux.

I would tell you, but I am honestly worried about possible action form Oracle if I did.

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