JavaOne report

Over at LWN, there is a report from JavaOne writtern by Nelson Minar - things looks really promising with Linux and Java. Definately worth a read for both Linux users and *BSD users.

Comments

Sun doesn't get it

[Lucius Lucanius]

"I'm happy to say that Sun sounds like they're fairly serious about Linux support."

NOW? How many years has it been? Sun has been so boneheaded with java, which was once considered a threat to Windows as a platform. Now it's just another language. Consider all the signs:

1) A lot of the Sun java team quit right after it became a hit. This would have been unthinkable at MS. What does McNealy do, not hand around the stock option cookies?

2) When java was taking off, linux support was lacking badly, and sun didn't give a shit. With the world's biggest volunteer hacker base aching to help, ignore them. Nice move.

3) Sun invented java, and its own java products were among the least popular for development (compare symantec and visual j++). And it insisted on controlling java as its proprietary property.

If they had been smart, linux+java could have been a formidable combination a few years ago. Instead, they are still being myopic at this stage.

Sun may not get it, but at least we get Java.

[Nelson Minar]

I agree, Sun has taken their sweet time to support Java on Linux. It's been a source of frustration for years, for Sun employees as well as the Linux community. That's why I asked at the presentation "why did it take so long?". The nervous laughter in the room was quite telling. The reply ("limited resources") is not the full story, of course, but it's probably all they can say publically. I believe the real reason is Sun can't decide if Linux is a competitor or an ally.

The good news is that Sun is now going to do Linux releases. The bad news is that Java is still more proprietary than open. Java is still the best technology for Internet programming, so I'm going to continue to use it. At the same time I'll cheer on Sun to make their technology more open, and cheer on IBM and others for giving Sun some pressure in control of the Java platform.

Some comments

[ChrisRijk]

• Just got back from the first day of JavaOne. I'm happy to say that Sun sounds like they're fairly serious about Linux support. Lots of Linux visibility at the conference, several talks and BOFs. The biggest news I heard is that Java 1.4 ("Merlin") should be released simultaneously on Windows, Solaris, and Linux.

That they'll all be simultaneous for 1.4 isn't exactly new news - they've been saying it for about 2 months now. It's also possible you might see a point release (eg J2SE 1.3.X) which is simultaneous for all 3. Btw, Sun haven't done the final release for J2SE 1.3 on Solaris yet either, and the final release for Linux is only going to be about a month later than for Solaris.

J2SE 1.4 is winding it's way through the Java Community Process - see the (incomplete) specification lead.

• Yay! Pretty much all the standard J2SE and J2EE stuff should be coming out for Linux, including Hotspot (client & server), Java plug-in, etc.

Btw, the Linux beta already has HotSpot Client and Server. AFAIK the current Linux Java port is not the same code-base as the Solaris one, but they're going to merge them.

• x86 releases only for now.

AFAIK Sun are leaving non x86 Linux ports to Blackdown who are already working on them...

A Good Thing. (tm)

[Bowie J. Poag]

Personally, I don't really see why we need more IDE's for Java. I'm perfectly happy with vim+syntax highlighting. :)

Some helpful links for the unbathed masses:

IBM's Java AlphaWorks SDK For Linux
IBM's VisualAge Java SDK For Linux
Sun's "Java 2" SDK for Linux

Get crackin',

Bowie J. Poag