All OSGeo-Live java applications now working with OpenJDK 7

2 August 2012

100% of OSGeo-Live java applications are now running successfully using OpenJDK 7 in ​OSGeo-Live 6.0 beta releases.

This move to OpenJDK has been driven by Oracle's announcement that the "Operating System Distributor License for Sun Java" has been retired, meaning that Sun Java is no longer allowed to be distributed in Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, or OSGeo-Live.

The good news is that OpenJDK, the fully Open Source implementation of java, has improved to the point where we have shown that all OSGeo-Live applications will run under OpenJDK 7. And by extension, we have shown it is feasible to incorporate these applications in linux distributions.

We have verified applications compile and quickstarts run as expected, and we have been impressed with what we have seen. However we have not done comprehensive testing of all functionality in each application. Nor have we tested performance or reliability. Users who wish to see a specific application deployed into production using OpenJDK should contact the project about whether more detailed testing has been completed.

About OSGeo-Live

OSGeo-live is an ​XUbuntu based distribution of Geospatial Open Source Software, available via a Live DVD, Virtual Machine and USB. You can use OSGeo-Live to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything.