[Savannah-register-public] [task #4867] Submission of Live Cricket Score for Mobile Devices

[Sylvain Beucler]

Follow-up Comment #9, task #4867 (project administration):

Hi,


I'm part of the Savannah administration. I have done some Java and J2ME
programming myself, so I may provide some answers to your questions.

At Savannah, we ask that project can run on a completely free OS. We can also
accept projects that run under proprietary OSes but that can be perfectly
emulated using free software.

When we hit hardware, the considerations of what is free do not apply:
hardware, as a limited resource, cannot be Free - for example can't be
duplicated.

Some argue that firmware is at the frontier between hardware and software. We
distringuish 2 kinds of firmware, basically replaceable and non-replaceable.

This article:
http://www.fsf.org/news/freebios.html
explains the issue more deeply.

When what you run on your hardware is non-trivial and can be replaced (flash
memory, firmware upgrades...), then you're using non-free software. Whether
there is a free alternative or not doesn't change that fact.

I suspect that is your case with Firmware+Symbian+J2ME. In this case we
cannot accept the project - unless your code can be ran using free software
at least as well as under the proprietary platform.

The best people to ask for precisions wrt developping free J2ME programs
(assuming those are truly device-independent and only need J2ME per se) are
the GNU GCJ and GNU Classpath developers. If there is work under progress for
supporting J2ME (although J2ME is apparently not that close to J2SE at all),
those hackers surely know about it :)

Does this answer your questions?
Should be close this submission?

Regards,

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