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Java: One Step Closer To Open Source

Ritalin16 writes "Sun Microsystems on Monday intends to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Java programming language by sharing the proprietary source code for several key Java applications used by corporate customers. Sun officials believe that by making the source codes open to developers, they will spur more involvement and use of Java-based applications."

4 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. Too late Java is not cool anymore by FriedTurkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This doesn't really matter to Java detractors. IT types, usually not programmers, will bring up the same old tired clichés.

    Somewhere around the year 2000 Java became uncool especially with younger programmers. I guess because it became an institution taught in high schools everywhere. Maybe programmers feel Java is rammed down their throats so they champion less established languages even something by Microsoft.

    Java really is the best thing out there for a lot of things. Sun can give away everything and detractors will be like: "OK but what about your first born child?"

    1. Re:Too late Java is not cool anymore by Decaff · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh hahahaha... yes, if your app doesn't look completely native it's the developers fault. Fuck me, I have to wonder what planet you live on.

      This one. Your average user won't notice much difference between Swing and native on Windows, and will not see any difference at all on MacOS/X.

      Speaking as someone who has tried Swing under Linux and Windows, I have come to the following conclusions... and this is based on actual usage, not theoretical bullshit and Sun marketing (like your reply):

      Actually, I am a Java developer, who has had substantial practical experience of it since it started. It has been my main development language for about 5 years.

      1. Swing sucks balls under Linux. It's very very slow (and believe me, looking slow compared to GTK is quite an achievement) and ugly... even with the gtk plaf it stands out like a builder wearing a pink tutu to work.

      Swing works fine under Linux. It is fast and very user-friendly (I find novice users have no problems with it at all).

      2. Swing sucks balls under Windows... even though Sun have put a huge amount of effort into speeding it up by using all kinds of directX acceleration to hide just how slow it is.

      On the contrary, Swing is pretty good under Windows. It has good desktop integration and is very fast. The DirectX application means it is at least as fast as native apps.

      3. Sun's entire Java package for Linux sucks... and it's only going to get worse. Sun's Linux support is grudging and half-assed at best.

      Sun's package for Linux is first-rate. Not only have they directly supported it for years, they now ship Linux with Java installed as a product.

      Why do you think so many people hate Java on slashdot? It's partly a license thing... and partly that Java is a corporate quagmire and on Linux it is seriously shite.

      On the contrary, its a combination 'not invented here', geek culture not liking 'safe' languages where you can't hack everything and a dislike of everything that isn't open source.

      Linux is one of the main deployment platforms for server-side Java, and Java is very widelyused this way for high-performance critical applications.

      So I am afraid the evidence is strongly against your 'seriously shite' claim!

      The fact that you can claim Java is in *any* way a serious system for cross-platform desktop development betrays a complete and total break with reality. You might try using it in the real world.

      I do, and have for years. It's cross-platform ability is superb. I have written substantial (hundreds of thousands of lines) Swing and Web applications and these have ported between Windows and Linux with no changes.

  2. Too late Java is not cool anymore by expro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This doesn't really matter to Java detractors. IT types, usually not programmers, will bring up the same old tired clichés.

    Same tired old cliches. I can tell you first hand that lots of major developers of Java and early advocates have been turned off directly by issues that could have been addressed by open sourcing it. But that won't stop you from your tired cliches that it doesn't matter, just because you don't want it to matter.

    I was developing major applications with it before it reached 1.0, and still work with it quite a bit, but it becomes more and more irrelevant despite my best work because Sun wills it to be irrelevant. Even as a major early licensee of Java, basic problems were not considered important enough for Sun to solve, and it hasn't changed much.

    Somewhere around the year 2000 Java became uncool especially with younger programmers. I guess because it became an institution taught in high schools everywhere. Maybe programmers feel Java is rammed down their throats so they champion less established languages even something by Microsoft.

    Again, strong on cliche, very weak on technical understanding or demographic fact, but at least you contradict your prior nonsense that it is not programmers turning away.

    Java really is the best thing out there for a lot of things. Sun can give away everything and detractors will be like: "OK but what about your first born child?"

    Go whine somewhere else. You think you should dictate what is useful to us without giving us adequate control to meet our needs? We will continue to use Java less and less as other tools continue come forward that are more responsive to our needs. The stuff we run today in Java doesn't benefit from the JVM and will be ported away as performance becomes more important and other features we need to build in are still not available in Java, since it is not open.

    The whole attitude that somehow open source is wanting more from Sun than it would contribute back is ignorant, uninformed, short sighted, etc. Sun and their apologists should get a clue. Open source would make it responsive to a much wider range of developers and would produce developments Sun was too blind to pursue or pursued way too late and too little. Any harm has already been done to a great extent by Sun's pig-headedness. They should go off in a corner and use it by themselves if they don't want to open it up.

    Waiting for Java has become a dead issue. No one expects Sun to get a clue, so why are you still whining that some in the past thought they might.

  3. Re:Read the "fine" article, please by DAldredge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The GPL isn't the only definition of Freedom or Free.