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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."
...has been tracking the various Sun Java-related giveaways; you can hear them talk about the Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise giveaway in JavaPosse # 13.
I highly recommend the JavaPosse podcasts; it's a great way to keep up with the latest developments in Java. Haha, get it, developments! Anyhow. They do a nice job of tracking things that most Java developers may not be using but will be someday - i.e., the recent discussions of the Mustang Hotspot speed improvements and such.
Disclaimer: They just interviewed me about PMD and my book PMD Applied. But still!
The Army reading list
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.