Sun starts bidding adieu to mobile-specific Java
177380
As hardware gets more powerful, Sun expects the desktop version of Java to gradually replace the stripped-down mobile version. Will it un-fragment Java for gadgets?
180937
(InfoWorld) - Sun MicrosystemsÂ is going to where the carriers are to unveil new features on its platform for mobile content delivery platform. On Monday, the company is set to announce enhancements to its Sun Java System Content Delivery Server (CDS) at the International Telecommunication Union's Telecom World show in Hong Kong. Organizers expect as many as 57,000 attendees from around the world at the week-long show, which takes place once every three years. Mobile operators looking at big bills for 3G (third-generation) networks and shrinking revenue from voice minutes want to offer subscribers something new that they'll pay extra for. Sun is one of many vendors promising to help them get new money-making services up and attracting users. Sun's CDS provides a common infrastructure for delivering all types of content, including Java applications, games, ringtones and wallpaper. It also lets operators create storefronts, viral marketing tools and payment systems. It lets the carriers and other content providers set up services more easily and quickly, the company said. Among the new features coming at Telecom World is the Central Device Catalog, which lets carriers quickly aggregate content from various sources for a new device and then collect records of downloads. This lets the operator view usage patterns and segment customers, directing new content to the appropriate group. Also at the show, Sun plans to announce that Telefonica Moviles Espana and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom have chosen Sun Fire servers and the Solaris 10 operating system to deliver services to their customers. The show will also be a coming-out party for an alliance Sun announced last week with Nokia and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. In the Telecommunications Platform Initiative, the companies will jointly develop requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications platform. If network equipment providers follow a common set of open standards in their products, it will be easier for carriers to integrate gear from different suppliers and ultimately get revenue-producing services out more quickly, Sun said. Sun and other members of the initiative will continue to work with other groups that set telecommunications computing standards, such as PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group), the company said
157938
SAN JOSE, CALIF. -- A Sun Microsystems official at the BorCon conference here on Tuesday touted the Java Community Process (JCP) for amending the Java programming language, but did not have any revelations pertaining to industry calls for making Java available under an open source format.
473364
Refreshing its development tools arsenal, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday revealed plans for upcoming versions of Java Studio Creator and is unleashing upgrades to the NetBeans open source platform and Java Studio Enterprise.
103780
Sun releases Java Standard Edition 6, a Java desktop update meant to work better with scripting languages.
559247
(InfoWorld) - The Java platform may run on 2 billion handheld phones, but not on Apple's trendy new iPhone. Apple's stance was called a mistake by a Sun Microsystems executive Wednesday at the AJAXWorld conference in Santa Clara. "I think it's a mistake. I think it would provide a lot more flexibility in applications being developed," for the iPhone, said Bob Brewin, Sun Distingushied Engineer and vice president for software. JavaScript runs on the phone and someone will put Java on the iPhone, Brewin said. But by not having it on there now, iPhone users and Java developers are being shortchanged, according to Brewin. Current Java applications, such as the LimeWire media-sharing application, could be easily ported and developers could choose the Java language for building new programs for the iPhone, he said. There also could be a lot of Java-based games made to work on the device, Brewin said. He attributed Apple's stance to the company wanting developers to develop for only a small set of APIs. "Fundamentally, they don't like open systems," Brewin said. Apple representatives could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been dismissive of having Java run on the iPhone. Brewin also noted the status of Sun's JavaFX multimedia display technology. JavaFX could give the benefit of rich applications to the iPhone, Brewin said. The JavaFX compiler is available in an early-access release right now. Sun expects to release components of the JavaFX runtime next year, Brewin said. Binaries for the JavaFX Mobile component of the platform will be showcased next year as well. While JavaFX will compete with highly touted technologies such as Microsoft's Silverlight and Adobe Systems's Flash and Flex, Brewin believes JavaFX offers advantages. "I think the biggest strength to JavaFX, sort of from a core principal, is because it is built on Java, you know it is ubiquitous," Brewin said. "You're not ... beholden to a proprietary implementation of another vendor," Brewin said. JavaFX also offers a simpler programming model than AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), he added. Also, Brewin said the Java Community Process, a multi-vendor effort on making changes to the Java platform, is going through a transition because of the recent open-sourcing of Java. "When we open-sourced Java, it just changed the dynamic a bit," he said. One example of how it has changed is contributors have to think about whether they want to contribute their intellectual property to what is now an open source platform. But Brewin anticipates the continuance of the JCP. "I think the JCP will thrive," he said. During a morning presentation, Brewin spoke of a "blue shift" and "red shift" phenomenon in computing, comparing IT to the physics concepts of blue and red shifts,Â  in which light turns red as it becomes more distant and blue as it gets closer. The red shift represents applications on the Web, which go out worldwide and scale to millions of persons. The blue shift represents computing in the enterprise, Brewin said. Building red shift applications requires thinking about a different application space, one in which there will not just be 10,000 people using the application behind the firewall but one that could serve 10 million customers, Brewin said.
57383
Compiling good time Users running Sun Microsystems' Solaris operating system are getting something a little extra thrown into their contracts: developer support.â¦
1864
InfoWorld - SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- Simplifying Java programming is on the minds of Java development executives at Sun, but making the language available via an open source format remains off the table, according to executives at a Sun &#8220;Chalk Talk&#8221; session here on Wednesday.
698404
(InfoWorld) - Now that Java is going open source, what exactly does that mean? Developers and others worldwide say it opens up a world of possibilities. New opportunities are presented on Linux as well as in the desktop and mobile spaces. Also, open source developers who might have shied away from Java because of its commercial implications now can jump in the pool. Sun unveiled plans to make Java open source available under the GNU General Public License on November 13. The move "has a huge impact on the open source world," said Jeff Waugh, director of the Gnome Foundation, which is building a desktop environment for open source and Unix systems. There has been a wall between Java and open source as far as desktop applications; the open sourcing means Java can spread on the desktop, said Waugh, in Sidney, Australia. "Now that Java will be open source, it means it will be able to be included in any Linux distribution by default," Waugh said. "That allows us to create desktop applications in Java," and distribute them with Linux, he said. Java now can vie with C and C++ on the desktop, Waugh said. Additionally, mobile application development becomes more Java-friendly, he said. "Given that Sun [is] also open-sourcing Java ME (Micro Edition), that allows Gnome developers to create Java applications that can work across the desktop and embedded devices," Waugh said. Open source Java also makes Java more competitive with Mono, which is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .Net development platform. Java becomes available to desktop developers such as Mono, Waugh said. "It will be interesting to see the lay of the land between Java and Mono," Waugh said. Open-source Java may even prompt the death of some projects. "It should make the Classpath project obsolete," said Casey Marshall, a contributor to the Classpath project, from Santa Cruz, Calif. Classpath is a GNU effort to write a free version of Java class libraries. "A lot of work that I've done could be relegated to the dust bin of history," Marshall said. But Marshall is not disappointed. "I don't think that personal glory is the ultimate goal of free software," he said. The Classpath project may be able to fill in some gaps on any class libraries that Sun cannot open because it does not own them, he added. An open source Java will bring new developers to the platform, said Dalibor Topic, a lead developer on the Kaffe project, which involves development of a free Java virtual machine. "I think it greatly boosts the perception of Java as a managed runtime technology in circles that wouldn't have considered Java as easily," because of the "Java trap," Topic said. The Java trap has involved an issue in which distribution of free software containing Java was hindered by Java's previous licensing terms. With open source Java, developers who did not have the opportunity to look at the source code now can do so, noted Topic, of Saarbrucken, Germany. By having Java available under the GPL, "it makes it possible to take your virtual machine and port it and include code from other applications that are open source or under the GPL," Topic said. Code can be exchanged with other projects, he added. Sun, however, may face an obstacle: its own culture, Topic said. "I think an interesting challenge is going to be to make sure that the culture within Sun that exists around the code base works well to this whole process of opening up," Topic said. Governance of Java, as far as dealing with contributions, also will need to be worked out, he said. A developer in Sao Paolo, Brazil who is a former Sun employee called the open source move a great step and one that was a long time coming. "I'm one of the people who have been asking for an open source Java implementation for quite some time," said developer Bruno Souza, who heads up the SouJava Java user group in Sao Paolo. Open source, Souza said, "is the best way to develop software and is the best way for people to use software." "It actually puts control of the software into the hands of the user," Souza said. If a vendor stops developing a piece of software, for instance, the community at large can take on that task in the open source paradigm, he said. The open source move means Java developers and others can partner with each other and distribute the results instead of just collaborating with Sun, Souza said. Souza listed a slew of potential projects that can be undertaken in the open source world. These could include an improved font rendering system and enhancements to the Swing UI, Souza said. Java also may be extended to new platforms and even to video games, he added. Application time issues can be resolved in the Java virtual machine and Java tools and documentation can be translated to new languages. An open source community integrated with other efforts must rise up for Java to reach its potential, Souza emphasized. "People think once it's open sourced, then magically it gets better. Thatâs not really true," he said. Although the community has been able to look at Java source code, now they can do more innovations and modify the code, said analyst Michael Cote of RedMonk. "Itâs pretty wide open at the moment," Cote said. "There's already several people who have been writing GPL versions for the VM (virtual machine)," he said, adding that new virtual machines might offer better performance and be easier to set up. A wider audience is now able to use and learn about Java, he said. "There's a lot of open source developers who aren't interested in developing in commercial platforms," Cote said. The GPL brings a lot of open source advocates in the mix, he said. As far as potential incompatibility issues that arising from the open sourcing, developers will be motivated to ensure compatibility, Cote said. Compatibility is a main advantage of the platform, Cote emphasized. "You don't have to have a bunch of if-then-else statements when you write to Java. You just write to Java," Cote said. Still, the possibility of forking exists. But incompatible implementations could not use the Java brand, Cote said. Despite the raves for the open-sourcing of Java in many corners, not everyone believes it will make all that much of a difference. Some chatters on the Javalobby.org site have expressed opinions in this vein. "I could care less if Java is open sourced or not. I'm waiting for the day I can wash my hands of the Java language altogether," said one chatter.Â  One poster griped about the design of Java. "Open sourcing Java won't clean the badly designed APIs," a chatter said. But another chatter applauded the GPL choice. "This also opens the field for broader contributions. Man, am I excited," one poster said. In choosing the GPL option, a surprising selection, Sun seeks to boost Java on the Linux platform, Sun's Rich Sands, community marketing manager for the Java Platform Standard Edition, concurred. Java also can be more easily spread in markets that prefer free, open source software, such as educational institutions and in the developing world, he said. "In looking at all those markets, we believe that the GPL is the best license to choose for facilitating adoption in those areas," Sands said.Â  Developers also can experiment with Java technologies such as the Java C compiler and Java HotSpot VM and port HotSpot to new platforms, Sands said. "Developers can learn how a world-class JVM is built, experiment with garbage collection, synchronization," and other components, Sands said. Sun looks to monetize Java by selling subscriptions to its commercial releases of Java, which feature customer support. Java also can be used to expand sales of Sun workstations and servers. Sun is not worried about incompatibility issues arising because the GPL requires that code changes be published. "It forces innovation into the open," Sands said. "There's really no market for an incompatible version of Java," Sands said.
513240
Having just emerged from a public beta process that began in the spring of 2005, and especially now that Java is an open-source project, developers will find little to be surprised about in Sun's newest Java SE 6, released yesterday. But one sign that even Java is adapting with the times is its new support for external scripting engines.
308580
Sun Microsystems (Quote, Chart) announced the availability of two upgrades to its software development platforms on Tuesday. Java Studio Enterprise (JSE) 7, the Santa Clara, Calif.
661819
Sun is expected to announce next week that it will make the Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology) device platform available via open source, but a user expressed concerns about Sun's commitment to the technology.Sun SPOT is a Java-based experimental platform intended to enable development of products like wireless sensors, robotics, and communication devices. The open-sourcing is expected to be made official at the Java Mobile &amp; Embedded Developer Days Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., which is being held January 23-24."In this case, I think what's a little bit different is it's not just open-sourcing just the Sun SPOT code," said Roger Brinkley, mobile and embedded community leader at Sun. "It's everything related to Sun SPOT. It's the hardware, it's the software."Included in the open source endeavor would be the Squawk virtual machine featured as part of Sun SPOT. Through the open-source move, Sun hopes to attract more developers to Sun SPOT. "The open-sourcing allows a lot more extension and development to occur," Brinkley said.The plan calls for Sun SPOT to be offered under the GNU General Public License version 2, which means derivatives of GPL code and code that is combined with it must be redistributed. Sun, however, previously has permitted use of the "ClassPath" exception to the GPL, which enables combining of proprietary code with GPL ClassPath libraries without the need to redistribute proprietary code.Contacted afterward, Sun SPOT user Bruce Boyes, president of Systronix, lauded the technology but had concerns about Sun's commitment to it. By classifying the technology as experimental, Sun shows no published commitment to make it available for any period of time commercially, he said. Systronix has been trying to get a commercial license for two years, he said.?"SPOT is a very cool educational and experimental device. We'd like it to become a great commercial and industrial device too. Systronix would like to help make that happen," Boyes said. Systronix is using Sun SPOT in robots, which could be networked and potentially be used in applications, such as roaming of airports to provide security. "We use the Sun SPOT as the application brain," said Boyes.He also expressed concerns about the GPL, which has requirements that can place limits on its use in commercial ventures since software involving it has to be contributed back to the open-source arena. "Open-sourcing would be most interesting if there was a reasonable path to a commercial license," Boyes said.Sun officials were not available to respond to Boyes's concerns on Friday afternoon.In other happenings at next week's conference, application developers in the mobile and embedded space will get together to learn about different topics ranging from virtual machines to mobile clients. Presentations will be done by representatives from such companies as Nokia, Intel and, of course, Sun. James Gosling, CTO of Sun's Client Software who is widely considered the father of Java, will give a keynote presentation on Wednesday.Java, according to to Sun, is on 95 percent of mobile phones shipped today. Sun makes money off of mobile and embedded Java through commercial licenses that feature support services.One topic that is not expected to get a lot of play at the event is Sun's JavaFX and JavaFX Mobile technology. The JavaFX platform, featuring JavaFX Mobile, is intended to provide a consistent and graphical user experience on systems ranging from desktops to mobile devices and other systems. More on JavaFX will be aired at the JavaOne conference in May in San Francisco, a Sun insider said.Currently, Sun's new acquisition, MySQL, maker of the open source database of the same name, has not been factored into Sun's mobile plans, according to Brinkley. Sun agreed to acquire MySQL this week for $1 billion, with the deal expected to close later this quarter or early in the next quarter.
337295
Company unveils 'WidSets' for Java-enabled phones.
66715
Migrate and be damned Sun Microsystems is reaching out to scripters and developers on rivals' IDEs with enterprise tools and a migration program for its latest version of NetBeans.â¦
344979
Solaris tools breath easy The release of the 6.0 version of the Sun Microsystems-sponsored, open-source NetBeans IDE last week sounded the death knell for two other Sun-spawned development tools: Java Studio Enterprise and Java Studio Creator.â¦
736650
Nice blog post via Slava  criticizing the quality of the Java runtime and hotspot compiler:  "The HotSpot source code is a bad joke We wasted an afternoon and had a good laugh on IRC today, looking over parts of the SCSL sources to HotSpot and the sun.* classes. I can't give too much detail or paste code samples because that would violate Sun's ... license, but here are some highlights:"  This is my favorite one:  "A lot of preprocessors are used. This includes a mix of awk, sed, shell scripts, and indeed, Scheme! Yes, the JVM source includes jscheme.jar, used to generate some CORBA classes. Considering that Sun talks about how bad preprocessors are, its hypocritical of them to use preproces ...
550936
Sun exec: "If we want to keep Java relevant, we have to support this newer programming model."