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+# The Sunset of the DLJ
+
+The actually [sunset of the DLJ][retire_dlj] happened 
+[last summer][debian_retire_dlj], but
+it's news because of an article in [OMG! Ubuntu!][omg_ubuntu]
+and Simon's [followup today in Computerworld UK][webmink_java_not_dead].
+
+Simon's article does a good job of highlighting the role
+of the DLJ in the pre-OpenJDK days. Even for many of us
+at Sun we didn't know at the time we working on the 
+[DLJ][dlj_pr] that the plans to open source Java would be 
+announced at JavaOne 2006. Even so it would be over a year
+before OpenJDK source was actually released and several more
+months before it was built and distributed by major Linux
+distributions.
+
+Especially in the early days the DLJ bundles played an important
+role in the transition to the Free Java we enjoy today.
+In particular this enabled meaningful conversations between
+Sun and the community around packaging which have continued
+to this day on the subject of Java [modularity][jigsaw_big_pic].
+Yet there is one thing Simon did not mention: how many
+people thanked Sun for making Java available under the DLJ.
+
+The people who were most appreciative
+were those using government mandated applications (e.g. tax filing in France)
+or financial applications (e.g. banking in Brazil).
+What is very important to note is that
+these key applications use Java applets. These applications depend
+on having a solid Java plugin which provides applets in modern browsers.
+
+What the community lost in the sunset of the DLJ was the *de facto*
+plugin implementation even though it is not, in fact, part of
+the Java SE specification. Since Java 6 update 10 or so the Sun (now Oracle)
+implementations have used a new, re-architected plugin (let's call it plugin2).
+One of the large, remaining deltas from Oracle's closed Java and OpenJDK
+is the plugin: neither plugin1 nor plugin2 have been open sourced.
+
+Here we must acknowledge the amazing community effort of the IcedTea
+project in Free Java and, specifically, around an 
+[open source plugin][icedtea_web]
+implementation. So is Java in Ubuntu? Yes. Is there a plugin
+in Ubuntu? [Yes][ubuntu_plugin]. Yet this is one area where the community 
+is [struggling][ubuntu_bugs]
+to provide users with Java functionality they need and Oracle isn't
+cooperating with the community as well as they are on the bulk of OpenJDK.
+
+My former Sun colleague David Herron has [blogged about the DLJ][robogeek_dlj] as has a fellow Debian Java developer [Sylvestre Ledru][sylvestre_dlj].
+
+We not at the End Times for Java. I would even go so far as to suggest
+that we are now in a Java renaissance thanks to the variety of languages
+and projects running on the JVM. If you would like to experience
+the vibrance of the community please join us at [FOSDEM 2012][freejava_2012].
+
+I do hope Oracle will decide
+to liberate the new plugin (only then will the DLJ R.I.P.).
+
+
+[retire_dlj]: http://robilad.livejournal.com/90792.html
+[debian_retire_dlj]: http://lists.debian.org/debian-java/2011/08/threads.html#00107
+[omg_ubuntu]: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/12/java-to-be-removed-from-ubuntu-uninstalled-from-user-machines/
+[webmink_java_not_dead]: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/12/why-java-isnt-dead-on-ubuntu/index.htm
+[robogeek_dlj]: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/robogeek/archive/2011/12/19/dlj-project-long-live-openjdk
+[dlj_pr]: http://web.archive.org/web/20080505201104/http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-05/sunflash.20060516.4.xml
+[jigsaw_big_pic]: http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/jigsaw-dev/2011-December/thread.html#1834
+[icedtea_web]: http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/IcedTea-Web
+[ubuntu_plugin]: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/icedtea-plugin
+[ubuntu_bugs]: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/icedtea-web/+bugs
+[freejava_2012]: http://wiki.debian.org/Java/DevJam/2012/Fosdem
+[sylvestre_dlj]: http://sylvestre.ledru.info/blog/sylvestre/2011/10/25/removal_of_sun_java6_from_debian
+
+[[!tag Debian Ubuntu Java OpenJDK DLJ]]