kaffe-1.0.b1 probs on Linux

[Alexandre Oliva]

I wrote:

>> > You may still include classes.zip *after* Klasses.jar, if you still
>> > wish to run `javac', for example, but this is illegal, because
>> > classes.zip is not GPL'ed, and you can't link GPL'ed and non-GPL'ed
>> > code together.

Actually, as Paul Fischer has pointed out to me in private, you can
link GPL'ed code with other free licences such as Berkeley-like ones,
but not with non-free software.

Ben Laurie <ben at algroup.co.uk> writes:

> classes.zip is not "linked" to any GPLed code in this case, IMO.

It is.  The Kaffe interpreter loads the Java code and dynamically
links it with the Core API, which is GPL'ed in the case of Kaffe
1.0.b1, and with the implementation of the native methods of Kaffe,
which have been GPL'ed since release 0.10.0.

> It seems to me that if this were true, it would be a breach of GPL
> to run, for example, Apache on Linux.

glibc, for instance, is LGPL'ed, so it can be linked with non-Free
code.  libstdc++, OTOH, is GPL'ed, but it explicitly allows linking
with non-Free code.

> OTOH, Kaffe should have a Berkeley licence, then we wouldn't even have
> to debate the question.

AFAIK, Tim Wilkinson used to prefer the Berkeley license until he was
``stolen'' by some companies that used Kaffe and did not contribute
anything back to the project.  So he decided to GPL Kaffe.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva
mailto:oliva at dcc.unicamp.br mailto:aoliva at acm.org
http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~oliva
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP, Brasil