After acknowledging that "we've had a bit of a chill in our relationship with IBM", Sun President Jonathan Schwartz announced that the relationship has been saved, announcing that IBM has will license Java for an additional 11 years, and that IBM will also begin supporting the entire Websphere product line on Solaris SPARC/AMD.

IBM representatives John Mills and Websphere General Manager Robert LeBlanc spoke about how important Java has been to IBM and how important Java will be to IBM going forward.

But is this announcement really news? Clearly IBM needed to renew their license, they have an entire product line to support. Is this just business as usual, or does this mean that all the issues IBM had with Java's licensing arrangements and control by Sun, as evidenced by their comment on every single recent JSR review ballot, have been solved?

Cool, now maybe IBM can get Java working faster on the iSeries. Or maybe even stay up to date with the current FCS.

I wonder how much 11 year license cost?

I wonder how much 11 year license cost?

I wonder what the heck "java license" means ?
I do not need no stinking license to use java.
Why IBM needs it ?

IBM releases a jvm for common (x86) as well as ibm special platforms (iSeries, pSeries, etc). to get the jvm, ibm licenses it from sun, then they tweak it quite a bit. from garbage collector to anything else they can get their hands on.

IBM releases a jvm for common (x86) as well as ibm special platforms (iSeries, pSeries, etc). to get the jvm, ibm licenses it from sun, then they tweak it quite a bit. from garbage collector to anything else they can get their hands on.

But essentially they could write it themselves couldn't they? I mean the specification for the JVM is open? The language definition is open etc. Quite puzzled there. Anyway, what was the bigger news was that websphere will be available for SUN (x86 & sparc). So it seems more to be a commitment for Solaris than one for Java. How that goes with Sun open sourcing their JEE is quite a mystery. Might be a challenge for BEA though.

The IBM JVM's are now very very different than the SUN JVM's, I'm sure that there is a littlecommon code but they are more different than similar. IBM adda lot of value add the their JVM's are arguably better.

...that the IBM JVM is better. You may discuss any platform of your choice, but I am hoping that you will address JVM versions 1.3.1 or later on AIX 5.x . Please be specific.

+1

I wonder what the heck "java license" means ?I do not need no stinking license to use java.Why IBM needs it ?

They get to call their implementation "Java". Without a license they'd need be in Kaffe's situation: "Sun controls the Java trademark, and has never endorsed Kaffe, so technically, Kaffe is not Java." (from the kaffe.org web site).

I wonder what the heck "java license" means ?I do not need no stinking license to use java.Why IBM needs it ?

They get to call their implementation "Java". Without a license they'd need be in Kaffe's situation: "Sun controls the Java trademark, and has never endorsed Kaffe, so technically, Kaffe is not Java." (from the kaffe.org web site).

Not sure if this answers the original question of why they need a license when I or anyone else never required one ??

I wonder what the heck "java license" means ?I do not need no stinking license to use java.Why IBM needs it ?

They get to call their implementation "Java". Without a license they'd need be in Kaffe's situation: "Sun controls the Java trademark, and has never endorsed Kaffe, so technically, Kaffe is not Java." (from the kaffe.org web site).

Not sure if this answers the original question of why they need a license when I or anyone else never required one ??

Anyone who's implemented a JVM based on Sun's specs. and wanted to call that implementation "Java" has had to obtain a license from Sun, that includes Microsoft and IBM. If IBM didn't renew their license, they could not call their implementation Java. Presumably the Java brand is important to them, else they'd skip the license and promote "IBMJ#+" instead.

Robert LeBlanc, General Manager for WebSphere Software at IBM General announced that IBM signed a new license agreement with Sun for Java. Sun wins big from this agreement in that IBM will support Sun's OpenSolaris operating environment.

There was a bit of humor in the IBM announcement. John Loiacono, Executive Vice President of the Software Group at Sun Microsystems said, "IBM re-upped the license for Java deal for 11 years. As Spinal Tap said 11 is better." To which LeBlance quipped, "11 is 10% better."

-Frank Cohen

Nice to see IBM are *finally* going to port WebSphere to Solaris on Opteron. Is DB2 going to be ported?

..that should give them plenty of time to get them to Java 1.5.. ;)