On 23.12.2016 14:17, Anton Aylward wrote:
I came across this
http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-starts-to-audit-java-customers-2016-12
and I find it rather disturbing. I'm glad I'm a Linux user :-)
Are there FOSS 'installers' for Java and Windows?
No. The installer which you can download from the Oracle site doesn't cost you money but it's not FOSS, it's proprietary software. Check the license to understand what that means for you. Java 8 is mostly open source, see http://openjdk.java.net/. The Windows installer still contains proprietary code, so it's not as free as the Java runtime inside. The software which the article refers is a proprietary Java installer which allows you to install Java applications on every computer in your company. That's not the thing which you can download on the public Oracle pages. You need an Oracle account for it, you should read the license for it when you do and you should pay the fees when you plan to use it. It's like M$ Word. A lot of people have a copy with dubious legal status. M$ doesn't go after them, that would be a waste of money and time. M$ watches big companies with lots of computers. If they have reason to assume that they didn't buy everything they should have, they knock (friendly) on the door and "help" them (= audit) to get their stuff in order. M$ will earn $500'000+ in the process and everyone is happy. Oracle isn't a not-for-profit company. They bought Java to make money. Elliot didn't become a billionaire by giving stuff away for free. If you use his products, you should understand the terms under which you do. Regards, -- Aaron "Optimizer" Digulla a.k.a. Philmann Dark "It's not the universe that's limited, it's our imagination. Follow me and I'll show you something beyond the limits." http://blog.pdark.de/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org