>Judging from the volume of "when will 1.2 be ready?" messages, it's
>clear that interest in the Blackdown work is reaching some sort of
>critical mass.
With 1.1.7, Linux is either the best or second best Unix platform for
running Java. Solaris is obviously alright, but most of the other Java
ports (SGI, Digital Unix, etc) have really bad problems. The Blackdown
team has produced quality. Combine that with the general interest in
Linux and you can see why Java on Linux is so desired. Heck, we even
had one of Sun's big distributed Java gurus asking us when 1.2 would
be ported for Linux :-)
>Perhaps when the dust settles from the 1.2 port, it might be possible
>to arrange more formal and detailed visibility into what work is
>being done, what's under consideration, what's of interest, and progress.
I'd like to see more information about the porting process myself, but
that's asking the porting team to do even *more* work. The old rules
for Java made doing a Linux-style port awkward; things had to be
discussed in secret, code couldn't be released, etc. What's the impact
of the new community source licensing? Maybe we can open up the
porting process some? I haven't reviewed the licenses well enough.
A second thing to watch is the growth of Japhar and Classpath. My
impression is that this code is quality, that we might soon see a
truly viable open source Java. Of course, I said that about Kaffe too,
but that's never quite come to fruition.
Another interesting option is to see if we can get financial support
for the Linux porters. I was sort of hoping Sun would do this, by
donating some engineers' time, but maybe that's not come together.
Maybe some of the companies relying on Java/Linux could be convinced
to chip in some money? That would again put more responsibility on the
part of the porters, but in this case with a reward for doing it.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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