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Precisely. OpenJDK is not only one of the most popular software environments around, it is also one of the biggest (in terms of features, size of standard libra

by pron 8y ago

Precisely. OpenJDK is not only one of the most popular software environments around, it is also one of the biggest (in terms of features, size of standard libray etc., and certainly in terms of total continuous R&D investment) Companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Google, Linked in and Twitter are either entirely or significantly built on top of it (some of them even have internal forks), and even Facebook and GitHub increasingly use it, yet contribute little back (SAP and RedHat do make some significant contributions), while Oracle spends tens of millions of dollars every year on the several hundreds of full-time OpenJDK engineers it employs. We must support that somehow by getting more companies to contribute either directly in code or financially through support subscriptions. As of JDK 11, Oracle open sourced (or discontinued) all of the remaining commercial features in the Oracle JDK and contributed them to OpenJDK. (I work on OpenJDK at Oracle, but speak only for myself)

hyperpape 8y ago
"while Oracle spends tens of millions of dollars every year on the several hundreds of full-time OpenJDK engineers it employs. We must support that somehow by getting more companies to contribute either directly in code or financially through support subscriptions." An unsustainable situation will continue until it can't --some quote I'm butchering. I'm inclined to agree with you that we need more contributions from outside Oracle. Right now, Oracle is doing most of the work, but isn't happy with the money they're making. That allows those companies to contribute less back, but if Oracle stops doing that work, they'll have to step up, and I think they will. They'll shift some of that effort from internal forks to maintaining the base (those internal forks work well for them precisely because they're building on such a stable base).
theandrewbailey 8y ago
As an OpenJDK user, thank you for your work. While I acknowledge your frustrations, that's one of the points of free software. If someone takes OpenJDK, uses it, and has zero problems, they don't have any changes to contribute, and the license doesn't obligate them to contribute money.

by pron 8y ago

hyperpape 8y ago

"while Oracle spends tens of millions of dollars every year on the several hundreds of full-time OpenJDK engineers it employs. We must support that somehow by getting more companies to contribute either directly in code or financially through support subscriptions." An unsustainable situation will continue until it can't --some quote I'm butchering. I'm inclined to agree with you that we need more contributions from outside Oracle. Right now, Oracle is doing most of the work, but isn't happy with the money they're making. That allows those companies to contribute less back, but if Oracle stops doing that work, they'll have to step up, and I think they will. They'll shift some of that effort from internal forks to maintaining the base (those internal forks work well for them precisely because they're building on such a stable base).

theandrewbailey 8y ago

As an OpenJDK user, thank you for your work. While I acknowledge your frustrations, that's one of the points of free software. If someone takes OpenJDK, uses it, and has zero problems, they don't have any changes to contribute, and the license doesn't obligate them to contribute money.