Sun starts bidding adieu to mobile-specific Java
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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?
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(InfoWorld) - Sun is taking a page from Microsoft's security group and changing the way it updates Java for the desktop. On Tuesday, Sun announced that it will start providing advance notification of its Java SE (Standard Edition) security updates and that it will also scrap its controversial practice of staggering the release of Java patches. Instead, it will release updates for all supported Java SE platforms simultaneously. Sun Spokeswoman Jacki Decoster said that the changes were designed to make it easier for enterprises to patch all of their Java systems at once. But Sun's new system also happens to remedy what some had called a serious security risk. In July,Â eEye Digital Security CTO Marc Maiffret blasted Sun for waiting months between the release of some versions of its desktop Java. In January, Maiffret's company had discovered a serious bug in the Java Network Launching Protocol, which is used to run Java programs over the Web. But Sun made its fix for the problem available to developers several weeks beforeÂ it pushed out the update to the Java community at large. Though this practice gave attackers a chance to reverse-engineer Sun's security fixes and use them against some of Sun's 800 million desktop users, surprisingly, the Java platform has only rarely been targeted, said Andrew Storms, director of security operations with nCircle Network Security. "It's still the number-one platform for IT enterprise development in-house. But we haven't seen a whole lot of attacks against it." Besides staggering developer and end-user releases, Sun would also wait before releasing updates to users of older versions of Java. Previously, it was standard practice for Sun to fix older versions of Java, such as J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4, weeks or even months after it had patched the latest Java SE 6 software. That will all change under the new system, which will offer simultaneous developer and end-user releases for these three versions of Java. However, users of J2SE 1.3 will have to wait until next year before their software is updated at the same time as the rest of the platform, Decoster said. She could not say whether Sun planned to offer this type of synchronized release for its embedded or server-based Java platforms, Java ME (Micro Edition) and Java EE (Enterprise Edition). Sun's advance notifications will not be released according to a pre-set schedule, as is the case with Microsoft and Oracle, but they will come out within a week of the actual security patches, Decoster said. Customers can receive the advance notifications via e-mail or read about them on Sun's security blog , she added.
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Sun Microsystems Inc. has ambitious plans for the commercial and open-source versions of its Solaris operating system, hoping to achieve for Solaris the kind of ubiquity already enjoyed by Java. To come close to reaching that goal, Sun needs to reach out more to developers and endeavor to overcome some long-held prejudices against the OS.
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OCTOBER 01, 2004  - Sun Microsystems Inc. this week released Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0, an upgrade of its programming language with more than 100 new features designed to bolster
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While Google's Android SDK for mobile applications could become a formidable competitor to Sun's own Java platform, Sun vice president James Gosling said Wednesday it is not possible for Sun to take a position on Android.Speaking at the Java Mobile &amp; Embedded Developer Days conference at Sun headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Gosling cited insufficient information from Google.?"It's impossible to have a position [on Android], right, because there is no data," he said when interviewed at the event. "Over the last couple of years, Google's been showing their phone at telecom conferences all over the world and with different business models, all of which really scared the carriers and handset makers. And then with Android, they put out a bag of code with no business model."Unless the day comes when they say what they're going to do with it, it's just a bag of code sitting out there," Gosling said.There has been speculation that Android, which leverages Java, could fragment the Java platform. Android was announced Nov. 5 by the Open Handset Alliance. This group features Google and other participants looking to foster innovation on mobile phones and offer a better consumer experience, according to a press statement.An Android SDK has leveraged both the Eclipse open source platform and Java classes. Android applications are written using the Java programming language, according to a Google FAQ about Android dated Dec. 14.Google could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.A speaker at Wednesday's conference, however, gave Android a thumbs-up."I like some of the capability in the Android platform," said Sean O'Sullivan, CTO of Rococo Software, who presented on Java Specification Request (JSR) 82 pertaining to Java APIs for Bluetooth. "In particular, I like the ability to customize lots of different elements within the Android platform."Sun, meanwhile, is moving Java ME (Micro Edition) technologies to smaller systems such as microcontrollers, while Java SE (Standard Edition) capabilities are due to be offered on newer cell phones with greater functionality, Sun officials said at the conference. Java SE capabilities are expected to be included in the planned JavaFX Mobile platform for cell phones and devices.Also at the event, Sun announced the open-sourcing of the Squawk virtual machine, which is a Java ME-compliant virtual machine used in the Sun SPOT platform. Other components of Sun SPOT, including libraries, will be open-sourced at a later date after more due diligence, said Roger Meike, director of operations in Sun Microsystems Labs, which has overseen the Sun SPOT project.Sun hopes by releasing Squawk, developers will extend it beyond mobile phones. Squawk and Sun SPOT are already being used in applications such as robotics.Also open-sourced by Sun at the conference was the JXTA (Juxtapose) Java ME MIDP2.0 Proxyless Implementation. JXTA allows for setting up ad hoc networks of devices such as phones for applications, including discovery of participants in a conference, said Mohamed Abdelaziz, lead architect within the advanced development group of Sun's Java client software group.O'Sullivan noted the Marge project, a framework to help developers build Bluetooth applications in Java, is intended to facilitate use of JSR 82.
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Sun Microsystems Inc. Thursday announced the availability of the J2SE (Java 2 Platform Standard Edition) 5.0, which the company said looks to be the most significant Java upgrade to date.
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Nokia and Vodafone have positioned themselves at the forefront of further developing Java for mobile devices, with the ultimate aim being more consistent platforms for developers across various handsets.
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InfoWorld - Fresh from introducing a major upgrade to the Java platform, Sun Microsystems officials on Thursday revealed some details of the next release of Java, code-named &#8220;Mustang&#8221; and expected in Spring 2006.
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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.
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Sun Microsystems on Monday night posted a prerelease, "snapshot" version of Java 2 Standard Edition 6.0, code-named Mustang, which represents the next generation of the Java platform.Â
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Application developers are getting a raft of new options this week with Sun updating J2SE, Borland upping its CORBA ante, and Compuware detailing products that will work with Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 toolbox.
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(InfoWorld) - Just days after a security researcher blasted its Java patching system, Sun Microsystems has issued a critical update to the consumer version of its Java software. The Java Platform Standard Edition (SE) Version 6, Update 2 release was made available on Sun's Java.com Web site Friday and is being pushed out to Java users who use the software's automatic update system, said Jacki Decoster, a Sun spokeswoman. Sun supports four different versions of its Java SE software for desktop computers, and the company had already patched the other versions before releasing the Version 6, Update 2 release, which is the latest version of the product for consumer users. ThatÂ raised a red flag with security vendor eEyeÂ Digital Security, which said that the staggered release schedule gives criminals a chance to reverse-engineer the Java bug by looking at the patches that have been made public. Sun says that it likes this schedule because it gives developers extra time to find bugs in the product before it lands on consumers' desktops. eEye discovered the bug back in January. It is a critical flaw in the Java Network Launching Protocol, which is used to run Java programs over the Web. Hackers could exploit this flaw by setting up a malicious Web site that could install unauthorized software on any Java-enabled PC that visited it, according to eEye. Java users have another reason to be up to date on their patches. On Friday, the SANS Internet Storm center issued a warning about two critical flaws in the way Java processes bitmap andÂ JPEG images. However, those flaws were not new. They were patched in the previous Java 6, Update 1 release, which was made available in March. These image-rendering flaws, which were discovered by Google researcher Chris Evans, have been known publicly since January 2007, and were only identified in the Java SE desktop products. Although SANS questioned whether the flaws will affect mobile phones and PDAs, they do not effect the Java Platform Micro Edition software commonly used for such devices, Decoster said. In late June, Sun patched the bugs in Java SE Version 1.4, the last of the desktop products to receive this particular update. The 1.4 fix may have prompted the SANS alert, Decoster said.
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After being blasted by security researchers, Sun is changing the way it patches Java.
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Exec's comments come after Sun decides to release Java code under the less-controversal version 2 of the General Public License.
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InfoWorld - Sun Microsystems on Monday night posted a prerelease, "snapshot" version of Java 2 Standard Edition 6.0, code-named Mustang, which represents the next generation of the Java platform.&#160;
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Come Monday, Sun will be known by the stock ticker JAVA--but the move isn't well received.
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Single installer Sun Microsystems is hoping to leverage the popularity of Red Hat's JBoss, with software making it easier to use NetBeans with the application server.â¦