Google Web Toolkit is Now 100% Open Source

By Seth Weintraub | Published Dec 15, 2006

Sweet Google can you do no wrong? With the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) 1.3 Release Candidate, all of GWT is open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

Google Web Toolkit is a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and GMail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. Other than open sourcing the code, there are no other additions to the 1.3RC over 1.2. The only changes were tweaks to the code to make it more OSS friendly.

Bruce Johnson, Tech Lead for the GWT team, announced on his blog that the code of the GWT is going to be out there on Google Code. Google Code is Google's answer to SourceForge as a repository for open source code and projects.

The mission of the Google Web Toolkit is “To radically improve the web experience for users by enabling developers to use existing Java tools to build no-compromise AJAX for any modern browser.” A lofty agenda to be sure. One might also throw in there “proliferating the Google platform to every corner of the universe”, but perhaps that's exaggerating things a touch.

If you want to get a head start with the GWT or if these AJAX things still mystify you, head on over to the AJAXWorld Conference in NYC where GOOG will be sponsoring a booth.