I don't think the title is correct: JSON being pulled is not mentioned in http://php.net/manual/en/migration55.changes.php

It is probably the case that in common Linux distributions, the build of PHP has the relevant functionality removed, as the license does obviously conflict.

It's a shame that only IBM gets dispensation to do evil :(

This all boils down to Crockford being intentionally annoying about the licensing.

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCimLnIsDA

I call B.S. No way they are removing json_encode/json_decode from php. That would essentially be removing an extremely high-volume method from the php stack.

I'm seriously torn about this. On one hand, of course, Debian is kind of right in their assessment and strictly speaking, the JSON extension and with that the PHP package is not entirely free software.

On the other hand, the risk of anything bad coming out of shipping code with this license (evil people will have no qualms violating the license :-) ) is very close to zero. However, the risk of people being seriously pissed off at the next version of Debian (or Ubuntu) breaking all their web applications is really high.

Yes, an alternate extension is starting to exist, but it might either work subtly differently from the built-in one (you know, bugs exist and people might depend upon them), or worse, might have security flaws remaining undiscovered due to fewer eyes reviewing the much smaller in scope extension.

This is not just bad for users, but also for developers of libraries who now have to take extra care to support the other extension.

It's ridiculous to having to go through all this trouble for some evil people to be able to use Debian :-)

Thank god I moved to packaging and deploying our own PHP for our application. Having to deal with a non-standard JSON extension for no reason but politics and lack of pragmatism would piss me off endlessly.

That all said and after having vented my frustration: I still see where Debian is coming from and I can also kind of understand their decision. Of course it still pisses me off, but I can understand it.

Maybe Debian (and by extension Ubuntu) just isn't the right distro for me. Though seeing that the replacement extension is made by a Fedora developer, I seem to be running out of options :-)

Short summary, JSON is not removed from PHP. Some distros of Linux (specifically mentioned were Mandriva/Fedora/Debian) have replaced the version written by Crockford with another alternative: jsonc

404 link is quite the coincidence.

Apparently the reason for this is the "Software shall be used for good" clause in the license, but I believe IBM obtained a special exemption that it may be used for evil as well.

Surely, the PHP folks can acquire a similar variation?

Reading the comments to the PHP bug, I find it funny that "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil." license clause was not approved by Google :) :) :)

The link is 404 so In layman terms, unless some other extension comes up with exact same function names, my json_encode/json_decode will stop working in 5.5? fuck.

404 link :/