JavaFX? GPL2? Commercial software?

1

I just looked in the NetBeans Preferences and came to the JavaFX tab … up pops an installer for “JavaFX implementation for MacOS X” with a license that very much looks like GPL … or am I wrong?

The GNU General Public License (GPL)

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license
document, but changing it is not allowed.
…

Skimming over it there seems no exception for commercial software distribution.

Bummer.

2

Ok, found it on https://openjfx.io:

JavaFX, also known as OpenJFX, is free software; licensed under the GPL with the class path exception, just like the OpenJDK.

But I’m not sure what that means.

3

That means that the javaFx software is gpl software but the use as linked class in commercial projects is allowed. So the javaFx can be hol and nobody can commercialize it.

1 Like
4

Thanks Thorsten!