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Red Hat Plans Open Source Java

Posted by simoniker on from the jump-java-and-wail dept.

sthiyaga writes "According to a ComputerWire article, Red Hat is in discussions with Sun about launching an open source version of the Java platform. 'There's always been an interest in an open source implementation of Java developed in a clean room that adheres to the Java standards,' Szulik told ComputerWire. 'We're in discussions with Sun. We'd like to do this with their support.'"

6 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. Gosling favors Open-Source Java by Domino · · Score: 5, Informative

    James Gosling, the creator of Java, recently mentioned that he favors an Open-Source Java. (See Infowork article).

    Some people withing Sun seem to be scared though that an Open-Source Java standard could be "polluted" by Microsoft.

  2. Re:Native Java by Dingleberry · · Score: 5, Informative

    Java not being open source isn't "holding" this back. Look at the GCJ web site FAQ. They are currently writing peers in GTK and XLIB for AWT. Once that's finished Swing will follow.

  3. Re:Much needed by spacecowboy420 · · Score: 5, Informative

    .NET is Microsoft's newest programming language offerings. Basically the purpose is to integrate the web into windows applications. There is VB .NET, ASP .NET, C#, etc... The languages are actually pretty usable in a windows enviroment, and are OO. This makes them a little more powerful. I use Java, but its nice to bust out a VB .Net proprietary app that runs cleaner/ faster on a windows system. The down side is similiar to Java though, in order to run Java apps, you need the JRE, with .NET stuff, you need the HUGE ass .NET framework installed.

    --
    ymmv
  4. A reason to enlist Sun's Cooperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Many people have asked why RedHat needs to enlist Sun's cooperation in order to implement a clean room Java. One important reason, is to gain access to the JCK (Java Compatibility Kit), that contains approximately 20,000 test cases that you need to pass in order to be certified as Java Compliant.

  5. Re:No, it's more likely GCJ by Per+Bothner · · Score: 5, Informative
    gcj only makes native binarys from java source, INFO or byte compiled java code to run on a virtual machine. it is NOT a virtual machine.

    Wrong. The program gcj is a compiler, like javac, but the GCJ project and run-time includes a virtual machine. The command gij is a plug-in replacement for the java command (except for unimplemented features and bugs, of course).

  6. Re:Much needed by sbrown123 · · Score: 5, Informative


    vs 47.3 on my workstation). And it does more stuff -- a lot of the add-on packages for Java, including all of their J2EE crap, parellels

    I am guessing you are stating that Java has more stuff since .NET does not have J2EE anything. Microsoft cannot have anything past the 1.1 J2SE framework due to license conflicts with Sun. Also, the J2EE framework is a seperate package from the standard java runtime (J2SE).


    CD is trivial, and most Windows Update and XP users have it already.

    I have XP and had to download the .NET framework from Windows Update to get it.


    What's cool about .NET is that the IDE supports all sorts of really useful data transformation and reporting mechanisms using SQL/XML/etc built right in...no rolling your own data access methods (though I end up doing it anyway).

    This is covered by JDO in Java. Theres also a really nice opensource reporting library call JasperReports. Along with that theres iReports which is an opensource IDE for creating JasperReports.


    3) .NET is better than Java for apps that will always be used on a Windows PC, because:
    - It has a much faster graphics interface, while maintaining a robust graphics toolkit.

    See the SWT project. It uses native graphics rendering and widgets in Java.


    - It interoperates quickly and pretty thoroughly with current COM APIs, and wraps up nicely for use in non-.NET apps

    SWT has OLE/ActiveX support.


    - The Studio environment is faster to work with and has a more mature debugger than any Java IDE I've seen, including Netbeans

    Eclipse project works real well. Its very fast (again, uses SWT to render widgets) and has a very mature debugger.


    - ADO.NET is pretty nicely done, and things like DataAdapters parellel structures I always end up writing in Java anyway.

    Its JDO in Java world.


    Anyway, the runtime filesize argument is just crap. The java guys need to get that GUI speed up to par or .NET's going to roll right over them.

    Yes, check out Eclipse (www.eclipse.org). I have been using SWT in combination with GCJ to create native windows applications that dust anything created in VB (though C/C++ apps are a couple milliseconds quicker).


    Eight months ago I'd have never said this, but Java isn't my favorite language anymore. C# is.

    I liked .NET. It has some interesting concepts that will spur Sun to improve Java. I think SharpDevelop is a nice IDE worth checking out for anyone wanting to get into .NET without buying Visual Studio. Also of interest is the Mono project (www.go-mono.org) which is a open source implementation of .NET framework.


    And even association with the vile and repugnant Microsoft isn't enough to sour it.

    I think both Microsoft and Sun suck at being at the helm of both languages. Borland does a better job with C/C++ over Microsoft and IBM does better work with Java compared to Sun.