Stallman lamenting that GCJ and ClassPath are still (read: eternally) catching up ...

[Erik Poupaert]

> And then Sun will release 1.5 and we'll play catchup again.

It doesn't need to be that way.

It really depends on who you care about: your users or Sun Microsystems. By the way,
I haven't heard anybody clamouring for 1.5. And personally, I couldn't care less.

And indeed, what about doing something about the horrendous footprint of GCJ compiled
applications? So that we can use it on 4MB Palms, Ipaqs or other embedded systems?
 
> I see Richard's post as a way [2] of introducing a new audience how far 
> GNU Classpath has come

Richard is a man under siege. And sometimes he gives in, while he shouldn't, because
he was actually right all the way, regardless of all the criticism. GCJ would be so
much further if it had started by saying that "GCJ is not java", just like he once
said that "GNU is not Unix".

> If more people from the Java open source world ...

The situation is actually even more pressing than that.

Without the Apache Software Foundation, Tomcat, JBoss and related software
stack bailing them out, Sun Microsystems would already have been forced to throw in
the towel. The Java open source world has bailed out Sun way more than Microsoft
recently has. Now it's indeed more than time to convince them to stop doing that.

> And the next catch-up session after 1.5 is released might go faster if 
> there are more GNU Classpath developers around from the start :)

Without niches with frantic activity using GCJ, these developers won't come, because
in the end, it's all still about scratching itches.

But then regardless, you shouldn't expect such developers to come in droves from the
Java world. Java developers have long time already accepted that the JDK/JRE are not
free. They simply don't understand what Richard just said. They don't sense the
implications of the GPL. Do we really need yet another influx of that kind of
developers/users; at this point? Their numbers could easily swamp us. Growing too
quickly can also destroy the very culture on which this whole endeavour is based. I'm
sure that the orthodoxy needed to keep linux free, based on convinced Stallmanian
determination, is more important at this point, than getting in whoever at whatever
cost.

So, why not focus on the niches where GCJ could become successful, if not,
dominant ...