The number of commits in GNU Classpath peaked at 3193 in 2006 (as measured from a git mirror of the CVS repository). Activity has since dropped significantly with an all time low of 30 commits in 2009. With 31 commits and counting this year, things aren't really improving. GNU Classpath used to be the essential free Java runtime library but that's all changed now. Ubuntu, for example, has dropped the GNU Classpath package and only ships the OpenJDK version of CACAO. Another prominent alternative JVM, JamVM, seems to be also migrating to OpenJDK. It looks like the community is moving over to OpenJDK and GNU Classpath development is grinding to a halt.

But with OpenJDK licensed under the GPL, do we still need GNU Classpath to be actively developed? Thinking about the killing of OpenSolaris, Harmony TCK dispute, and the Android lawsuit I think there's enough doubt not to bet the future of free Java on OpenJDK alone. There's also probably something to be said about the dangers of software monoculture as well but the bottom line is that it's still important to have a community-driven project around free Java if don't want big vendors to control its destiny.

So what do I think needs to happen with GNU Classpath?

The CVS repository needs to be migrated git or Mercurial. I mean, just getting the GNU Classpath sources via cvs checkout is painful enough to avoid contributing to the project not to mention how much problems it causes for developers that don't have commit rights to the centralized repository!

Patches need to be reviewed and merged more quickly. There's lots of unmerged patches waiting in bugzilla and the mailing list. When I tried to help out and get one of those patches merged, it took two whole months of waiting before it ended up in CVS. That's too long time to wait for your patch to be merged and is likely holding back potential new contributors.

More automated tests for compatibility testing. It's pretty obvious by now that there's not going to be a freely available Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK). That's why it's so important to write automated compatibility tests against OpenJDK and make sure they pass with GNU Classpath as well. The Mauve project seems to have been abandoned which is why I've started a new project called Malva that attempts to write compatibility tests for the core Java APIs.

Java 1.6 and 1.7 APIs need to be implemented. GNU Classpath APIs are currently stuck at Java 1.5 level. There's already applications out there that use the Java 1.6 APIs and the situation is only going to get worse as time passes by. It's therefore crucial that work on Java 1.6 and 1.7 APIs starts as soon as possible for GNU Classpath to stay relevant.

There's so much software written in Java that it's unlikely to go away any time soon. There's also some really cool development happening in the alternative JVM language space (Scala, Clojure, and JRuby, for example) which hopefully makes the JVM a relevant platform in the future. I do think OpenJDK is great but I don't think we should rely on it alone if we want to make sure Java stays a free and useful platform in the future as well.