Hi guys
There is currently a drama going on with Java since Oracle is going to start charging for the use of the "runtime" (Java SE) since January of 2019. I'm watching customers here in Ecuador that are counting the Java applications they have developed and calculating how much they have to pay Oracle to use their runtime on their java applications server.
Oracle says that will charge of the Java SE only for commercial and business use. Which I understand is that if you use "FreeMind" (for example) for non commercial use you can keep using Java SE free of charge, but if you use it for work/money you need to page a license to Oracle (Like $40 for the Java SE Advacnced desktop) (
Source). And there is also a different way to calculate the cost for a server running several Java web apps.
In my understanding, this applies to Java SE, and does not apply to OpenJDK (the open source spin off). On the OS/2 community we have the OpenJDK (GNU GPL) ported to OS/2, which means we are not using the Oracle binaries for the Java runtime. Which I understand there will be no problem for us using "Freemind" (or any other Java app) for commercial use, and it would not be any issue (or payment fee) if Bitwise or any other guy wants to port the latest OpenJDK (version 11) to the platform.
I think it is not time to demonize Java as a development language, but it is time to be careful on which runtime do you install to run Java apps. On the case of the OS/2 community we have OpenJDK 1.6 which I think it does not gives issues.
Do you think I'm understanding this right? Any other thoughts.
Regards