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Sun Adds Java and N1 to No Cost List
An anonymous reader writes "Sun announced today that they would be making a number of tools available at no cost for both development and deployment in addition to reaffirming their commitment to open source the software. This is to include the Java Enterprise Syste, Sun N1 Management software, and Sun developer tools. From the announcement: "With this announcement, Sun is creating the no cost and open alternative
to the Windows environment. The Solaris Enterprise System has all of the
benefits of an integrated offering while still enabling customers the
flexibility to address their requirements by deploying the specific components
they need into alternative operating systems."
Does that mean I can finally type "emerge sun-jdk" on my Gentoo box and have it download and install in one easy step, without having to go to their stupid site and click on some stupid EULA??
Free as in beer, or free as in "not being a goddamn pain in the ass"?
I hope you realize that Java != Javascript. Anyways why would a language's popularity influence the quality of the language? Bad languages can be widely used (COBOL at one time), while good ones may only take root in niche markets.
Philosophy.
Aside from the Eclipse example (which really didn't have anything to do with Java, other than that the Eclipse people wanted to make up for some of the weaknesses of Swing [most of which no longer exist]), there really isn't that much choice. J2EE = J2SE + a few items, JavaBeans is basically just a framework for certain tasks, and if you don't need any of the specialized features of the add-ons, there really isn't anything other than "pure" Java. The core language today isn't that different from what it was 10 years ago, and having a large number of add-on packages available isn't something that should be viewed as a bad thing. A Java app will still run on all Java platforms, provided that any additional packages are installed. Choice in things like SOAP implementations, XML parsers, and application servers is a good thing, and it doesn't mean that the language isn't "standardized". If anything, Java is more "standardized" than C/C++. The Java String class is always in java.lang.String, while a String in C++ is in a different place depending on the compiler used. C and C++ certainly do better in some areas than Java, and Java does better in some areas than C/C++, but that doesn't make either one bad, or either one good.
Also, poor business model != poor choice of language. There are plenty of viable Java development shops. Language is just a tool to get the job done, and your favorite language may not always be the best choice for what you want to do. For some things, LISP is a great language, but I wouldn't want to write a VoIP softphone in it.
Back on topic though, as a developer, I always love free development tools, but in this case, as a shareholder, I'm not quite sure how they're going to make money on this. Good will can be hard to deposit in your bank account. At least they have 8-core processors and Opteron servers to (hopefully) turn a profit.
--That's the point of being root, you can do anything you want, even if it's stupid.
C# will exist 10 years from now. Don't delude yourself into thinking that MS will tank within a decade.
I think what he was talking about is whether MS will actively support and develop C# in 10 years. Look what happened to VB, they abandoned it to move on to the next big thing (VB.Net is not the same language as VB and it certainly isn't compatible). What's to say they won't abandon C# so they can sell the next big thing to their customers by forcing them to upgrade due to lack of support for the older tech? In fact, history shows that this is what they do.
Sure, there is the Mono implementation, but what if you are relying on MS-only libraries or Mono isn't enough for whatever reason, you're shit out of luck. And if Novell gives up on Mono, and no one takes over, you're especially out of luck unless you have the resources to continue its development yourself.
#!/
Which of course is rubbish. Open sourced Java programs can be redistributed and modified, just like any open source program; they require a JVM, but then again, any program needs a processor, and besides there are open source JVMs.
Why yes, Sun Microsystems can indeed go and make a new version of Java, utterly incompatible with any previous version. Now, if my code works on some OS implementation of JVM, why on Earth would I be driven to move from this working platform to the new, incompatible Java (which, by definition of "incompatible", would require that I port my application, and couldn't run any other existing Java programs for the same reason) ? Why would anyone ?
Please explain ?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.