News from Barton: Netbeans now dual-licensed: GPL & CDDL. Also see: • License File, Bruno's Announcement and FAQ,

NetBeans is planning to add GPLv2 w/CPE as a second license, in addition to CDDL. This is the same arrangement we have at GlassFish. Check out the original Mail from Bruno, the blogs from Lukas, Roman and Josh, and the FAQ.

The word is out ([1], [2], [3], [4]) Sun is using GPLv2 for its Java SE and Java ME implementations. Sun looked carefully at the available options and decided that GPLv2 was the best choice for Java SE and Java ME but, what about GlassFish? Our Community have been very happy with CDDL and we are going to keep it, but we are also adding GPLv2 with ClassPath Exception. We will thus be dual licensed - actually tripple licensed, if you count the commercial licenses.

Being dual-license is not that unusual; for example, Mozilla is triple-licensed (GPL, LGPL, MPL). Dual license means extra flexibility to customers of GlassFish: some partners and enterprises may prefer CDDL while some Linux distributors may like GPL better. Expect the new license to appear in our source files soon although most likely not before beta HCF for GF V2 (do you want to know when? - check our V2 Roadmap, we are opensource and transparent).

I hope the new license will encourage news members to our community and, to them, a warm welcome! To our existing members, thanks for all your contribution and support and please continue to build a great community and great technology!

So, how often do you write... IANAL, but...? Chandan is not a lawyer either, but he has a good summary of licenses that is worth a check, specially as it explains CDDL. I enjoy Chandan's blog; his typography alone is worth a visit, and in this one he uses graphics very nicely.