Man, I feel like I've done nothing but complain on this blog lately! I promise, I'll get back to posting netbeans RCP coding tips and stuff.

However, John Reynolds posted a link to an article inviting comments on Sun's OSS strategy. I couldn't resist sending along one of my little pet peeves...

Mr. Phipps:

I saw your invitation to comment to this email address on John 
Reynolds' blog.  There is one aspect of Sun's OSS strategy 
that's been particularly bothersome to me and others on the 
NetBeans project.


Lots of stuff done by Sun employees and posted to java.net are 
LGPL'ed.  Examples include SwingLabs, JDIC, and the SwingWorker 
backport to JDK 1.4.  Presumably, the intention is to allow other 
projects to use these libraries (both OSS and proprietary), while 
forcing back any improvements into the library.


It doesn't work.


Both proprietary software companies and many OSS projects 
(including NetBeans) won't touch LGPL'ed libraries.  Whether 
their concerns are valid or not (I think they are), we're left in 
the rediculous scenario where one Sun OSS project (NetBeans) 
cannot make use of other Sun OSS projects.


Sun Legal really needs to decide what it thinks of the LGPL.  It 
should either be eliminated in favor of the SPL or similar, or it 
should be allowed to be used by non-LGPL Sun projects across the 
board.


Thanks for listening :)

Cheers,
Rich Unger
NetBeans Governance Board