IBM and Sun have recently exchanged press releases about their respective open source Java IDE projects: Eclipse and NetBeans. Why do these billion-dollar companies care so much about open source software? The obvious answer: market share as covered in this JavaWorld article. It just may not be as direct as it might seem. Actually, here’s my take on this:
IBM thinks it’s competing with Sun. Sun thinks NetBeans will help bridge a relationship with the open source community. Two companies, two different objectives with these two open source Java IDE projects. Furthermore, IBM may be looking at the Visual Studio .NET market, although it’s far from open source at this point. It sounds like a lot of money to invest for so little in return for IBM.
Sun on the other hand looks at NetBeans more in terms of public relations than revenue (I guess they have to since it’s open source) based on their software group’s stance that they want to be perceived as Java evangelists, not Java sellers. Furthermore, I’m sure some at Sun would like to see the remnants of iPlanet (i.e., Forte for Java, etc.) sold off to interested companies such as Novell, Allaire, etc. We shall see.
What do you think of my take on this? Please share your views on this debate.
Related link: https://news.com.com/2100-1023-846583.html
Delivering the keynote speech at European DevWeek 2002 on Tuesday, Microsoft .NET Developer Platform team architect Don Box said a replacement for HTTP will have to be found. That’s because HTTP is reaching its limitations and will eventually pose a challenge for Web services, P2P applications and even security. But it’s not clear who will provide this replacement, or what this replacement will be. Perhaps, that’s the job for the W3C and/or the newly announced Web Services consortium. We’ll see.
Mac .NET? The moment of decision is approaching, according to this news from CNET News.com. Apple must decide whether or not to continue its agreement with Microsoft. If I were a betting man, I would say not. Here are the reasons I think this.
1. Apple’s Mac OS X+ is a BSD-based OS.
2. Apple’s commitment to Java seems strong as exemplified by Aqua (J2SE); I doubt they’ll just change direction toward .NET, which Microsoft may ‘require.’
3. The Java community supports Mac as exemplified by the following tools: JBuilder for Mac and WebObjects (J2EE Web app server for Mac).
4. The open source community has embraced the Mac; even slashdot.org has a mac development news area on its site.
What do you think? I’m sure there are other reasons as well.
Related link: https://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0%2C14179%2C2847248%2C00.htm…
It’s Monday. It’s official. I’m simply tired of all the articles, editorials and more about J2EE vs. .NET. It’s a non-debate. Developers will need both. Anyway, I did find this Letter to the Editor on ZDNet. Interesting.
What do you think? Share your thoughts.
According to vnunet.com, “The Apache Software Foundation’s battle with Sun Microsystems stepped up gear last week as the open source community struggled to loosen Sun’s cast iron grip on the Java platform.” This is in response to, first, Lutris being turned-down for J2EE certification, and then JBoss, which is J2EE compliant from a technical standpoint, but apparently not J2EE compliant enough for Sun certification.
Last week, ONJava.com published O’Reilly editor Mike Loukides’ follow-up on the possibility of open source J2EE from Sun: Will You See Open Source J2EE Implementations? Not Likely. TheServerSide.com also published an interview with one of Sun’s J2EE principles, Karen Tegan. While Sun essentially says it supports open source efforts, it does not want those efforts to impact the J2EE certification process, a process that clearly is closed source at best. See the conflict.
As a high ranking member in the Java Community Process (JCP), Apache is part of the JSPA (Java Specification Participation Agreement). In this capacity, Apache can actively propose new and revised Java API specifications as well as integrate a particular specification under Jakarta, Apache’s open source Java projects. Apache’s reply is here in Apache’s JSPA Position. According to Apache, “…Sun doesn’t give a hoot about whether J2EE licensing restricts open source J2EE products (in case you missed it, it does).”
Sun benefits from its relationship with Apache. Apache gives Sun “…an advertising statement…to claim that it (Sun) has a ‘vision which uses open standards and non-proprietary interfaces’.” If Apache’s reply and suggestions go unanswered, Apache can put pressure on Sun in other, more severe ways. Without Apache, Sun could lose many of its Java developers as Jakarta projects would be affected. The impact could be quite severe, certainly in terms of publicity. Financially, who knows?
The impact could be quite severe, certainly in terms of publicity. Financially, who knows? What do you think? Share your thoughts on possible impact.
Related link: https://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2846884,00.html
From ZDNet’s Eric Knorr, “Lost in the fanfare is the fact that Microsoft–normally the odds-on favorite to win any big game–has a bad case of the jitters (when it comes to Java).” And they should.
More than 90% of Java developers surveyed (informally) has expressed reservations about .NET.
However, much of that 90% may have no choice since today’s development environments are heterogeneous with UNIX, Linux and even Windows servers.
Share your thoughts.
Related link: https://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2842294,00.html
ZDNet’s Larry Seltzer on how Java and .NET mirror or shadow each other in API structure and more: “It first really hit me when I read an article on what, at the time, was called ASP+, now dubbed ASP.NET. This is, of course, the next-generation .NET-associated version of Microsoft’s Active Server Pages. A lot of what was cool about it reminded me of Sun’s Java Server Pages (JSP) but with some enhancements that reflected Microsoft’s development philosophy. When I started looking around I noticed that much of .NET was obviously, at least partly in reaction to Java initiatives.”
What do you think of this editorial, “Shadow initiatives: .NET and Java?”
Related link: https://www.theserverside.com/home/thread.jsp?thread_id=11650
Marc Fleury is the founder and lead of the JBoss project (www.jboss.org), which is an Open Source EJB server. In this interview, Marc discusses JBoss and the open source movement, how JMX is used in JBoss, and the administering of ‘farms of clusters’; he also talks about the significance of JSR77, the future of J2EE with respect to JBoss, and comments on the .NET fiasco, as found on TheServerSide.com.
What do you think of this interview?
