[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nelson Minar) writes:
> Looking at the output of the Blackdown team in the past six months I
> think it's fairly clear why Sun is looking elsewhere.
>
> I really don't want to be too critical of Blackdown. They've done a
> lot of really good work in a very difficult environment. But the
> releases and communication from Blackdown in the past few months have
> been pretty bad. We're fairly far behind in ports. Worse, though, is
> the lack of communication. We're told a new release is coming out "any
> day", then don't hear anything for weeks.
>
> Like I said, I don't blame the Blackdown folks for this. Java is a big
> ugly beast to port - the problems we've seen with thread
> incompatibility and the like indicates how hard it is. Sun hasn't
> exactly been acting in good faith towards the Linux community, either.
> So given all that, getting a solid JDK 1.1.7 out is quite an
> accomplishment, as well as the various JDK 1.2 releases.
>
>
> Happily, a bunch of other groups are now porting Java to Linux. IBM
> has their ports, still a bit flaky at times but getting good. Now Sun
> has finally contracted with someone commercial to port their JDK to
> Linux. I hope Blackdown continues, if nothing else than to keep Sun
> honest. But I don't think it should surprise anyone that there are now
> other major ports underway.
Unfortunately, your comments are dead nuts on.
Juergen and Kevin in particular have been doing an awesome job, with
less than a handful of others making significant recent contributions
as well.
Sun clearly is not a class outfit to be doing Open Source hacking with
--- no big revelation here. Those six or seven Blackdown porters who
have made the JDK ports available so far would be well advised, IMHO,
to join some other porthing effort, Kaffe, Japhar, whatever, that is
not tied to Sun.
Or perhaps start your own clean port. Any NDAs seem pretty pointless
in the face of the SCSL and the poor form Sun showed in dissing the
Blackdown efforts.
The really, really good part of going your own route is that you'll
have an opportunity to "recruit" a much larger developer base.
In any case, while you may be justifiably frustrated and pissed, those
of you responsible for ALL the Blackdown ports are, and will be, well
remembered for your efforts.
Thanks,
-pmr
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