Joined: May 28, 2015
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Oracle JDK license update
As I was getting the errors
Error: opening registry key 'Software\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment' Error: could not find java.dll Error: Could not find Java SE Runtime Environment.
I wanted to download the latest available version of JDK 8.
I discovered that Oracle changed its JDK license for releases starting April 16, 2019. You must create an account to download the free version for personal use and pay a subscription for commercial use.
What is the impact for developers of plug-ins or derived versions for Sweet Home 3D?
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EnkoNyito
France
Joined: Nov 7, 2005
Post Count: 9426
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Re: Oracle JDK license update
The JDK has been also available for a while with OpenJDK under GNU GPL v2 with classpath exception, so it's probably where Sweet Home 3D should go sooner or later.
About Java 8 distributed under the new Oracle license, understanding what the changes imply isn't easy even with the FAQ provided by Oracle. It states:
Can you elaborate on what qualifies as Personal use? Personal use is using Java on a desktop or laptop computer to do things such as to play games or run other personal applications. If you are using Java on a desktop or laptop computer as part of any business operations, that is not personal use. For example, you could use a Java productivity application to do your own homework or your personal taxes, but you could not use it to do your business accounting.
which means for me that Sweet Home 3D shouldn't be used for a commercial use with any Java version released after April 16, 2019 (and not only in derived versions of Sweet Home 3D). Does this mean that anyone who uses the Java Web Start or Online versions of Sweet Home 3D with Java 8u211, 11.0.3, 12.0.1 and higher can't use it for commercial use? As the FAQ also states that auto-updates of Java 8 will still work until the end of 2020, will the commercial users pay attention to the license change when they will accept it during the update? For the installer version, I think that I will keep Oracle Java 8u202 for a while, at least as long as Java 3D doesn't work with Java 12 under macOS.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D creator
