sun

SUN is history

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On an emotional side note: If you want to remember the SUN logo, download it quickly ! It is breathtaking in what speed the Oracle logo replaces the SUN logo on various websites:

not yet:

  • netbeans.org
  • hudson.dev.java.net

They dont even bother to create a combined logo or similar (or fomerly SUN…).

News: Java goes Oracle

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With one company (IBM) jumping off the merger train another big one joins the game: ORACLE. I guess at this moment no one can really judge if that is the better choice or not, neither would anyone be able to foresee what exactly going to happen to “our” (as in OpenSource) Java, MySql, Netbeans, JavaFX,…
For the last few hours news IT websites, blogs and forums in the IT world are rapidly filling up with news, opinions and rumors about the big deal which definitely will impact the IT world.

Some news summary from JavaLobby (link)

Daily Thoughts 5

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  • IBM to acquire SUN ?
    Its not really new that SUN is looking for someone with a big pocket to buy the whole shop. Among potential candidates are DELL, HP,.. and IBM, which seems to be more serious about the deal (link). What will it means ? I am not sure if I want to tune into the pessimistic mood, that you find in some forums (link). A lot of innovative and creative power will be grounded (or at least the financial backing of it). IBM has zero genuine interest in Open Source and IBM is NOT hip, they are old fashioned and ultra bureaucratic. Most of the (server) products will disappear (or merged into their websphere product line with usual high pricetags) and stuff like Netbeans will turned down (in favor of eclipse), aka “opened” to the community but disappear in irrelevance after a while. We wont know. I hope that doesnt create another Microsoft in the srver world.
  • 456,520 downloads of Glassfish
    That shows the appreciation and adoption of the product in comparison to a number of other (propietary) products. Would IBM call it GlassSphere, Websphere Glass or whatever.
    Link
  • Google Chrome Beta
    There is another beta available for download (link). Despite the rumors Google would trash the browser is still taking up. Certain features I really like, I guess it could take some shares of the user distribution in future. I dislike the persistent update application running in the background with an option to disable it. I still favor Firefox because of the huge number of plugins. I dislike its getting slower to startup and eats memory.

Daily Thoughts 4

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  • 100,000,000th JavaFX
    Last week Jonathan Schwartz celebrated the 100,000,000 download of the JavaFX runtime on his blog (link). I share his excitement about JavaFX technology out now to conquer the field of Silverlight and Flash. If not I would not invert time in picking it up ! But to paint a bit more realistic picture, there is no dedicated JavaFX runtime installer. It is included with the regular, actual JRE installer, or to quote from java.com “JavaFX runtime is integrated with Java download. During the installation of Java 6 update10 (jre6u10), users will also be installing JavaFX runtime.” (link). JavaFX piggyback in a way (a smart way), but thats fine, this way as a solution provider you dont need to struggle with extra plugin installer, your customer or user already has it (at least with an up-to-date JRE).
    The JavaFX SDK has supposingly 100,000 downloads.
  • Netbeans 7 turns 6.7
    Release was initially the next release planned to hit the community, but the development team decided to release a version 6.7 in June (milestone release in next few weeks) and 7 at a later stage. I guess JEE6 support is among the reason to wait for 7. More info at netbeans.org (link).
  • Android versus JavaFX
    The more I read about the background of the 2 technolgies, even they are very close relatives, the more I doubt there will be a JavaFX running on Android anytime soon. My personal guess: Some folks will offspring a project on Kenai or Sourceforge to get it running.
  • Buying Android in Singapore
    One day after I ordered the dev phone from US, Singtel started to sell the HTC dream, which is an Android phone, here. Guess like the T-Mobile G1 it is locked. Good timing though. Lets see what is the retail price without contract (maybe not available).

SUN Techdays Singapore 2009 résumé

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2 days packed with sessions, demos and hands-on labs ! It was a SUN event, and SUN folks also learned to celebrate themselves with loud music and big-bang entertaining keynotes. Fine with me, part of the show. Obviously everything evolved around SUN technology and everything they support.

The products, technology and key/buzzwords were clearly:

  • Cloudcomputing
  • Open Source
  • Open Solaris
  • Virtual Box
  • Netbeans
  • Glassfish
  • MySQL
  • JavaFX

Feedback:
Most of the sessions were useful, or at least you got an overview of some new stuff or ideas.The hands-on labs were not as good because the trainer(s) needed to spend some of the time helping people to install Netbeans or xyz plugins (which is an audience problem) and beyond that is not useful to let the attending folks read the instructions from a zip-file and DIY while the trainer is available for questions (in Singapore hardly anyone ask anything).
It is always good for networking (and free food) to join these kind of conferences. Btw, the conference fee was 80.- SGD for 2 days (hands-on lab extra 50.- SGD each)

My highlights:

  • Simon Ritter (blog) presenting Wii Remote with JavaFX and SunSpots Technology (link)
  • Carol MacDonald (blog) on JMaki, Comet, Grizzly and EJB (Spring vs. Seam vs.  plain JPA)

Conclusion:

  • I will join the next TechDays.
  • I am installing OpenSolaris right now on a notebook (after checking with device detection tool, link).
  • I will continue to use the SUN (related) products that I already use (Netbeans, Glassfish, MySQL, Virtual Box)

JavaFX 1.0 released

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The battle of RIA platforms goes on and SUN finally released (4th Dec 2008) the first version 1.0 after announcing and previewing it first time at JavaONE in May 2007. FX is the JAVA way of doing thing you are used to see in Adobe Flash/Flex and Microsoft Silverlight targeting integration of video, images, sound and 2D graphics (3D supposed to be in the roadmap). One of the main difference to competitors: Key elements of JavaFX are open source.

I find this an exciting step and it dont force me walk to far away from my JAVA platform environment to create more exciting frontends than standard Swing look-and-feel. It is integrated into Netbeans !

The programming language is JavaFX Script, some mixture of Javascript and Java (spiced with some python look-alike features).

It is not supporting all OS yet (only Windows and MAC OS X) and there is no need to install another plugin (unlike Silverlight), Java JRE just needs to be updated to unleash its power in and outside the browser !

The JavaFX website (link)
SUN one page summary (link)
OpenJFX on dev.java.net (link)
JavaFX Blog (link)
JavaFX Script Tutorial (link)

JavaFX platform

JavaFX platform (image from http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/index.jsp)