RMS, previously, on Sun freeing java

[Xavi Drudis Ferran]

> I'm a bit surprised that RMS speaks as if Sun have already released it
> all under the GPL, rather than merely saying that they will release
> most of it next year.  Why all the premature Sun-bathing?
>

Maybe because of:
a) From what I've heard they must have released the JRE for SE, ME and EE,
which is no small thing. If they do as promised then we can thank them
again next year. If not the efforts to get free java platform will have a
little less to do (they have already done much). And there are already
tools for developing java, so I assume that with what they have release a
lot of staff
"in contrib" becomes completely free.

b) If you don't "sun-bath" now the public may get the impression the way
Sun has done it is wrong and should not continue it.

c) When I speak about a piece of free software I generally thank the
authors, I don't usually start complaining about all the rest of software
they may have written which isn't free.

d) Stallman, like others, may be tired of having to complain for
everything and wellcome the chance to congratulate on something.

I've always had the impression that people at Sun don't understand free
software, but anyway we have to admit they have done huge contributions,
maybe not in philosophy but at least in code. Maybe they're a bit erratic
sometimes, but a lot of what they do is right, so let's take it and thank
it while we do what we can to explain the rest to them.

You know, one "problem" with working hard for things, is that sometimes
you get them, or you get part of them, and them you have to stop
complaining and go on to the next thing.

Anyway I haven't checked exactly what is available, maybe I'm missing
something. We can talk specifics if you want. Why do you think the missing
parts are "most of it"?