Oracle warns on Java licenses for Solaris

Oracle has issued a warning to Solaris users about their Java licensing obligations.

The warning is needed because as of Janaury 2019 Oracle started charging for all commercial and production uses of Java. As Oracle has pointed out, those new licenses won’t be a problem for plenty of Solaris users because Java will most often be used in roles like the Oracle WebLogic Server and that has its own Java licenses.

But the company has warned “However for those customers that are using the Oracle Java SE that ships with Oracle Solaris … will need to now pay attention to their licenses.”

That’s because “…. the Oracle Solaris license only covers the commercial use of the Oracle Java it ships for Oracle Solaris components that use Oracle Java, that is to say the applications that ship as part of Oracle Solaris, so for it's own use.” But if other applications use Java, it’s time to cough up.

Either that or face Oracle’s famously rigorous licensing audits!

Oracle doesn’t think many Solaris users will have a problem: its post says “not too many folks will probably be impacted, because for example many customers that used to use Oracle Java SE for things like system agents have now moved to a language like Python for this tas”.

Yet the post ends by saying “it's important to understand and check.”

Which brings us again to those licensing audits … and the reality of keeping legacy applications alive without breaking the bank.