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Sun Works With Apache Software Foundation
The Jakarta group had raised some concerns over the proposed Java Specification Participation Agreement. After some hemming and hawing, it appears that the Java Community Process chair (Sun) has agreed with the ASF's concerns - but IANAL ? . If you have more info, paste it below.
I figured this would happen eventually. It seems all Web Server software (other an IIS of course) will merge to become an Application Server. Well, not as much merge but mature.
This happened last year with the relase of ColdFusion Server 5.0 which had a built in J2EE Aplication Server. This gave ColdFusion programmers the platform to incorporate Java into their CF apps (but if they were smart they'd use it as a springboard to merge all apps over to Java).
This will probably be a big step forward for Apache and I'm interested to see whats cranked out.
This is F-U-D.
Have you used Java lately? Forte? NetBeans? Eclipse? Tomcat? JBoss? There are plenty of stable and simple to install environments for developers and users. I use them everyday!
I would love to see Sun dedicate perhaps 6 months to working with other implementers to get java working smoothly and seemlessly on a wide range of hardware and operating systems, as it just doesn't seem to yet.
Once again... Have you used Java lately?
At my company we run and host Java Apps written on every different platform out there. How often are the Java Apps incompatible? Only when someone decides to use Micro$oft specific Java. (Which isn't that often.)
Why do so many on Slashdot people feel compelled to write FUD about Java just because it's not GPL?
I suspect that if it were all of a sudden GPL'd everyone here would bow down and start worshipping it, because it's the coolest thing since the hula-hoop.
While I think some of your points are valid, I also think Sun has made a huge improvement in the area of application setup with their Java Web Start product (now part of the standard jre distribution)
http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/
With Java Web Start installed in the client's computer you can distribute your Java application by just setting up a web page with a configuration file. The user just click a link in the page and Java Web Start downloads your code, all the libraries and even a newer version of the jre if needed. The application runs on an applet-like sandbox, so it will not read or modify local files, unless the user authorizes it. The applicacion is then cached for future use, so it will not be downloaded again, unless an automatic checking proves it has changed. If you are using Windows Java Web Start will ask you whether you want to add an icon to the menu the second time you start an application.
Of course, all this wonderful features work only if you have the jre installed in the first place. So it's some kind of chicked and egg situation. Anyway, I don't find the standard jre installation more complex that, say, installing Acrobat Reader, or other commonly used plug-ins.
Sun mantains a collection of links to third party Java applications:
Swing sightings. Some of them very interesting, some of them Web-startable.
I think if you read it more closely, it says:
Which limits it to TCKs offered by Sun - meaning Sun doesn't actually spend any money, they just don't take any money in for those specific cases (they're not losing anything, since those implementors can't afford Sun's prices anyway!)
So while it's kinda nice, Sun is not spending 3 million, and is not really losing any money either - those who get the free license by definition couldn't afford it in the first place.
We run Tomcat 4.0.3 in production, and have found it to be more than adequate. Like most Open Source tools, it's growing into larger and larger roles.
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien
Apache's rep,
Jason Hunter
The JBoss team can afford to get the certification (and have sponsors who were willing to pay for this, and told SUN about it). The problem is that to get certified you need to agree to Sun legal documents that disallows the distribution of source code for J2EE certified products. Hence no Open Source J2EE implementation can be certified. This is the reason Lutris for example chose to close the source for their J2EE implementation. For them it was more important to get certified than to support Open Source development. For the JBoss team the opposite is the case. We will not close the source base just so that we can get a "J2EE Certified" sticker for the product.
We have been using Tomcat in production as well for well over a year now. Have had very few problems... much much easier to develop using tomcat as well, WL/WS are nice but a pain to work with..
Non-Deterministic Finite Automata