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Sun Gets Open Source Into NSW Government
lplatypus writes "ZDNet Australia reports that Sun Microsystems has "has cleared a place for its Java Enterprise System on the NSW government's software shelf, continuing its campaign to weaken Microsoft's monopoly over the desktop." The Age clarifies that Sun's offering includes open source components such as Linux, Gnome, Mozilla and Evolution. Another article is at Australian IT, or see Sun's press release."
I received in the mail today a book entitled MDA Explained and I was somewhat suprised but certainly gladdened that the example code bits (at least the ones I've seen) are in Java. Plus there are lots and lots of people pulling for Java and now that I've been coding in it, I've grown to enjoy it.
In my opinion, Sun is one of those companies, like Microsoft or Oracle - a company that has many experienced and creative people as their employees and it is rather satisfying to understand that Sun has been providing people with a viable alternative to Microsoft for a long time.
Exactly. If Sun approached us with this solution I would say something like, "It looks real nice. Come back to us when you have convinced our vendors to rewrite their systems around it"
The really sad thing is that our solution would be much better engineered in Oracle (or even mySQL for peats sake...) as opposed to M$SQL They could even keep the Windows clients if they so desired (though I'd be just as happy to see them gone with the amount of money we pay MS each year).
I think the eventual way to fix this is to convince the vendors in question to look at other solutions is that they will save themselves (and their clients) money by using Linux/Unix based solutions (and to top it off the products would be more stable and secure) Since everything revolves around the bottom line, I don't see any better way of getting them to change.
Thoughts?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Most of these apps are classic client-server and could easily be ported to another RDBMS such as Oracle. However, the program logic is often in Visual Basic or Borland stuff and pretty much stranded on Windows.
"M$SQL" is appealing to this market because it can run simple applications without DBA support. Also, MS is willing to cut deals with app developers.
However, for shops that haven't bought MS-SQL licences, the DB Server can often cost as much or not more than than the application software. Thus, it's pretty much inevitable that these vendors will port to FirebirdDB or something that costs less.
Well that may be true but your argument works the other way too. If the NSW government uses Star Office for all it's documents then people who want to read files from the government will have to have Star Office / Open Office. Since the NSW government is a large organisation then those companies which deal with the government (which would be a lot) would also have to use star office and so on and so forth.
That's exactly how MS works - I have it and so you must too - but now change it around so it becomes - I now have changed to this so you must change to this too.
Given the size of governmental organisations they can set a trend in use simply because they are so big and interact with so many people.
This is very good for open source.
However Madhatter is largely based on GPLed software. GPL is (despite our BSD loving friends' statements to the contrary) an assurance that pretty much all of Madhatter will be free and "the rest of us" therefore will be able to enjoy any contribution that Sun Makes to Gnome or mozilla.
And it of course goes without saying that we will be able to enjoy the advancements in java that will occur when Sun integrates it more with the Linux desktop. (including the usage of GTK in java's UI allowing java programs to work better with GTK programs and even slightly better with QT based programs.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Separate from whether it is a -good- thing or not, Sun has no plans to get rid of Solaris now or anytime in the predictable future. Java Desktop System is planned to be running on Solaris in the next 12 months or less (of course that could slip).
Getting into Linux does not automatically mean killing off established offerings. In this case it made sense since the current low-end and corporate desktop spaces pretty much demands Linux or Windows (I wouldn't call Mac hardware low-end due to cost nor have I seen OSX with major acceptance in the corporate space). Solaris continues to be the choice of Sun's high-end hardware customers.
That's actually one of the great things about JDS, by running on both with the same codebase and features for the core components (GNOME, StarOffice, Mozilla, Evolution, Java and to a lesser extent GAIM and some of the extra utilities) Sun's customers can get an abstracted environment that looks and functions the same whether it runs Solaris or Linux. Until they get to the system administration or power user levels the end-user won't need to worry about which system they are on.
While yes, that means in the near future that a customer could transition from a big expensive SPARC box down to a less expensive x86 PC without retraining skills, it also means the reverse. The reverse may not be as common as the original premise, but it still is a barrier removal.
The first release of JDS is essentially a standalone product with no more remote management or administration features than any other Linux distro. The next couple of releases afterwards are going to be geared toward making big deployments easier for larger organizations. As that happens the idea of switching to various other Sun solutions like SunRay clients and more powerful workstations becomes more plausible. Not required or locked in, just more plausible. If a company wants to only use x86 PC hardware, they will be perfectly capable of doing so. However having choices can't be bad.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
This is one of the greatest strengths of Open Source; it's all about what you need. Why not collaborate with other businesses in your field to create the open source tools you need?
There are a great many insurance agencies around the world. This is an imense talent pool. Perhaps not all are technically skilled, but they at least have an intimate knowledge of the problem domain. Work together. Don't wait for someone to ride in on a white horse and sell it to you!
The article just says 'Mozilla Browser', I wonder whether this means Mozilla or Firebird?
On another (possibly related note), the front page of Mozilla.org is displaying the following message:
Mozilla Foundation Launches Mozilla 1.5, End User Services
We are pleased to announce new versions of Mozilla 1.5, the award winning Internet suite, and new Technology Preview releases of Mozilla Firebird (version 0.7) and Mozilla Thunderbird (version 0.3).
Maybe this and Sun's announcement have been timed so they purposefully coincide?
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
"Umm... collaborate with our competition to create a new solution that we will give away when ours works fine for the most part?"
Sounds counterproductive, but that is the strategy for survival. There is competition within a species and competition between species. While it is desirable to be the best within your species, the strategy loses if your species loses to other species.