Oracle hands out love and handcuffs to Sunware
Hello, Java. So long, Kenai
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Oracle has unveiled a Java and open source strategy extending some but not all of the existing efforts at Sun Microsystems.
Among the winners: Sun's HotSpot Java Virtual Machine, which will be integrated with the fast JRockit VM from BEA Systems; JavaFX, which should see an update by the summer; and Sun's Operations Center management software, which will merge with Oracle's Enterprise Manger to produce a single product during the next 14 months.
Sun's open-source projects in application servers and portals with Glassfish and its NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE) will live on too - but with strict role definition.
There are promises of cross pollination of features between WebLogic and Glassfish and NetBeans and Oracle's JDeveloper and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse. But the promises come with conditions: Oracle's WebLogic will be sold as the company's strategic application server for enterprise applications, while the free and open Glassfish will be Oracle's application server for departmental applications.
Oracle will invest in the NetBeans IDE and NetBeans.org community, but that investment will make it the best IDE for Java Standard Edition, scripting languages, mobile, JavaFX, and Solaris - according to Oracle. Oracle's premier JDeveloper IDE will be reserved for building Oracle's enterprise applications using Java.
The NetBeans and Oracle's JDeveloper and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse will retain separate teams, but Oracle said features from each will find their way into the other IDEs.
Oracle is looking a putting NetBeans' Matisse drag-and-drop GUI editor in JDeveloper and sharing its integration adaptors with "the other IDEs," chief architect and vice president of tools and middleware said Ted Farrell during a webcast outlining Oracle's plan for Java tools after the Sun acquisition.
Meanwhile, the next edition of NetBeans, version 6.8 will be released under and Oracle license, meaning it will be supported under Oracle's Applications Unlimited strategy.
The losers in the new strategy, announced Wednesday, are some of Sun's more ambitious open-source and Web 2.0 projects.
The database giant has said it will only enhance Sun's Java CAPs for existing customers and continue to maintain Sun's OpenESB and SOA integration and event processing projects. A Sun master index will survive in an Oracle health vertical.
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COMMENTS
Forums?
Not unless they have an NNTP gateway, otherwise stuff 'em. Web forums (or any other forum that can't track what you've read) suck.
JavaFX!
The reason they are continuing with the "white elephant" of JavaFX is that (despite the way it is marketed as an RIA) it is *the way forward* for Java on the desktop. Look at it this way: JavaFX is to Swing what .NET/WPF is to Windows Forms-- long term it is a replacement, that ushers in a new way of developing desktop app UI (declarative instead of imperative, with built-in support for animations, effects, transforms, multimedia, etc). And it's not just about the desktop--JavaFX is also *the only* reasonable way forward for Java on mobile platforms--and that includes interactive TV and Bluray.
In other words, had they killed JavaFX, they might as well have declared their complete exit from all consumer segments of the market. And honestly, that would just be dumb, because they still make a decent chunk of money on licensing that stuff, and more importantly, there is a lot more money to be made yet.
It's actually kind of ironic that Java, for all its popularity in the enterprise today, actually started life in the consumer segment, being envisioned as a simple language for set-top boxes and other embedded devices.... yet many in the industry downplay the importance of this aspect of its success.
Killed Kenai? Thank god
That thing was bloody awful. Why on earth do all these tech companies think it's a good idea to recreate forum software from scratch every time?
Sun's main forums are pretty awful (but somewhat understandable since they're trying to maintain compatibility with the original mailling lists), Kenai was just a nightmare. I had to register on it for the now defunct Sun xVM Server project, and actively avoided using the site unless I had to.
There are dozens of really good, tried and tested forum programs out there. Creating a new one just diverts developer time from more useful features.
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