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With the release of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 (J2SE 5.0), also known as Tiger, and the coming Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 (Java SE 6) final release scheduled for early December 2006, not to mention the open sourcing of Java SE, the Java platform is evolving from a community development model to a free open source model. To get up-to-date, we met with Jean Elliott, director of product marketing for the Java SE platform at Sun Microsystems. Elliott has held a variety of leadership roles in product marketing, business planning, and strategic analysis during her nine years with Sun's Java platform team. Today, she manages the groups responsible for developer tools, Sun Developer Network, five generations of the core Java platform, Java community development practices, as well as the emerging Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) and EmbeddedJava businesses. Prior to joining Sun, Elliott managed the Quality Assurance Group for Gensym Corporation, a leading supplier of expert-system software products for monitoring, diagnosing, controlling, and optimizing complex operational processes in real time. She holds an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management and a BA in philosophy and French from Trinity College.
Customers are interested in at least six generations of the standard edition platform in addition to the Java SE Real-Time and Java SE Embedded versions. Some customers are still interested in the Microsoft Virtual Machine (VM) because of older applications that they run on it. In 2007, Microsoft will end its support for the Microsoft VM. We offer a variety of services and useful information to help our customers make the transition, including a Java Upgrade Program site that contains migration guides, forums, information, and tips about how to get help. Also, be sure to take a look at the Java Upgrade Guide. Microsoft played an important distribution role in the early days of the Java platform. Since 2003, Sun has developed its own distribution channels and now has arrangements with nearly all of the world's top 20 PC OEMs so that they can distribute the most current versions of the Java platform on their machines. In addition, several Linux distributions now carry the platform as well. Next is the J2SE 1.3 product family, which will be EOL'ed (end-of-life'd) shortly, when Java SE 6 comes out in early December of 2006. For customers considering how to transition to a newer version of the platform, we have a variety of services available (PDF). The next product family, J2SE 1.4, is widely deployed. We offer an entire set of certifications, training classes, and support services. Tiger's new language features constitute the largest update to the language thus far. The J2SE 5.0 Tiger product family has taken off. The JDK 5.0 is our most widely used developer kit. More and more applications are being built using Tiger, and customers are responding well to the ease of development, the new web services features, the improved performance, and the desktop enhancements. The J2SE 5.0 development team focused on ensuring compatibility with earlier versions of the platform, such as J2SE 1.3, to make the transition smooth.
We also have an excellent migration guide (PDF) to help with the transition from J2SE 1.3 to J2SE 5.0. Check out our EOL web page for more details about our EOL policies. Also, the Sun Developer Network offers a variety of options for support services, training, and certification. Many of the 2 million developers in the SDN receive -- and offer! -- support in the Java technology forums. Java developers can learn a lot at the SDN -- and it's free. The forums have doubled in size in the past year.
NetBeans offers simplicity in its advanced features and in existing Java technology standards. It also offers simplicity in integrating and using existing Java technology-based open source and commercial projects in developing. The profiler, the mobility pack, enterprise UML modeling, enterprise SOA Visual Designer, full Java EE 5, Jackpot, new subversion support, collaboration, and of course, Matisse, which makes building GUI applications easier, are just a few examples of what NetBeans offers. NetBeans IDE 5.5, which is due out on October 30, 2006, supports the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and most notably the Java Persistence, EJB 3.0, and JAX-WS 2.0 specifications. NetBeans IDE 5.5 builds on the success of NetBeans IDE 5.0 and adds support for Java EE 5 and Sun Java System Application Server PE 9. Java SE 6 Platform Coming Soon
Sun completely changed the implementation process in the creation of Java SE 6. As usual, the specification was created in the Java Community Process (JCP) program through Java Specification Request (JSR) 270. What's different here is the implementation. After the Tiger release, developers who wanted a more transparent development process said, "You have done some amazing work, but for three years we didn't know what you were doing. Now you come out with this terrific release. We only wish we had been able to contribute to it." Researchers and folks in the education community wanted a simpler set of licenses for noncommercial use, and customers wanted more flexibility in the license in order to accommodate our products' release schedule. So we made some dramatic changes.
We implemented the JDK community on java.net and put up weekly snapshots of both the source and binary code beginning in November 2004. Developers contributed bug fixes, and more than 350 people have signed contributor agreements. We've received hundreds of contributions to the code. Going forward, we're committed to delivering Java SE with an open source model OSI-approved license as we evolve the platform from a community model to a free open source model. We are still working out the details of this. For now, we encourage developers to participate in the new open source community that is developing around Java SE 7. After it ships, Java SE 6 will periodically be updated with bug fixes and performance enhancements but no API changes. Ray Gans, senior program manager at Sun, has an excellent blog. Sun is heavily focused on making the transition from Tiger to Java SE 6 as easy and smooth as possible. There's been a huge uptick in the number of developers who are looking at the binary, with 10,000 to 12,000 developers downloading a month. The community is thriving, and we would encourage developers to participate actively in it, particularly as we get closer to the release of Java SE 6. Also, to increase the transparency of our development process, we've encouraged our engineers at Sun to blog about their areas of expertise. Check out Chet Haase, engineer on the Java 2D team at Sun for info on the desktop space, and Graham Hamilton, VP and Fellow in the Java platform team, for more general information.
The developer participation in Java SE 6 taught us a lot about what it takes to interact with the developer community. We were able to change licenses and our infrastructure to make the JDK release process more transparent. This has given us a running start on open source. We want to move forward with the help and input of both the broad-based Java community and the free open source software communities. The Java SE 7 Project
Java SE Real-Time and Java SE Embedded Technologies
With Real-Time Java, there is significant and very innovative technology added to the base Java SE platform. Again, we have a business model to support that. So, whereas embedded uses the same technology with a different business model, Real-Time Java involves both a different business model and different technology. The Java Community Process Program
Specifications will continue to be performed at the JCP. As Sun implements its full open source model for the Java SE platform, it's important to realize that we are open sourcing an implementation of something that has been specified by the JCP. We will need JCP to maintain standards as we move forward with open source.
Consuming Java Technology at Java.com
We have been able to distribute huge numbers of modern Java runtime environments (JREs) through java.com. In the past, most consumers only had access to the Microsoft VM, which was based on the J2SE 1.1.8 product family. Developers deploying content to consumers can now ensure that their consumers obtain a modern version of the Java platform by placing a simple button in their content that connects users to the Java technology download site, where they can get the latest version of the JRE free of charge.
See Also
Five Reasons to Move to the J2SE 5 Platform |
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Where do things stand with the Java SE platform? Where is it headed?
Before I answer that, let me show you the roadmap we're using:
