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Welcome to linux.java.net

Welcome to linux.java.net, the place where Linux and Java meet. Join the community and help shape it to what you want it to be. Share your issues and concerns with other Linux Java developers. Highlight problems, provide solutions, host your project. Or federate your project with java.net, wherever it is hosted. Start a discussion, request a blog, or email us with your ideas.

This page will be revamped very soon
Many things will change for the Linux community during and after JavaOne, and this page will be completely revamped to account for that chance. New projects are about to join the community, and new possibilities will be opened. Stay Tunned!
(May 15, 2006)

Java One mini-talks for Linux users
The Java.Net Community Corner in the Java One Pavillion will feature a few talks of special interest for Linux developers, ranging from on Sun proprietary JVM and new JCP standards to F/OSS JVMs. — Fernando Lozano

Eclipse On Linux Working Group
Novell, Red Hat and others are proposing a new Eclipse project focused on a better user experience for Eclipse on Linux, with a focus on making Eclipse packaging and updating compatible with Linux package managers like RPM. I hope they collaborate with the JPackage project!

A Look at GCJ 4.1 (by Mark Wielaard)
Version 4.0 of GCJ introduced a new deployment model that made is much easier for distributors to package traditional Java programs as native applications without requiring any source level changes. For version 4.1 of GCJ, this new binary compatibility (BC) ABI has also been used for parts of the core library. This change means that those parts of the core library can easily be upgraded with newer versions by the end user.

Kaffe 10th aniversary!
"In Feb 6 1996, Tim Wilkinson released the first version of Kaffe as version 0.1, which is the first independent free and open source implementation of Java Virtual Machine" (by Jim Huang). Note that this was about just a year after Sun released the first Java release!

Free Java Opens Doors To .NET World
It's ready folks. Make sure your library works with it. (by Weiqi Gao)

When Applets are not WORA
During the end of 2005 I had a customer who could not run a Java Applet on his desktops, despite having the latest update from Sun. And the desktops ran the fastest-growing OS and browser in the market today — Fernando Lozano

Stallman leads the GPL off a cliff (ZDNet)
When a blogger trashed the anti-DRM features of the GPL3 draft, common sense from the community was quick to show how biased the blogger was and how the draft was sound.

micro-libgcj: A lightweight alternative to Java.
From the projet home page:
"micro-libgcj is a lightweight version of the GCJ projectÃÂs runtime library (libgcj), intended to provide a usable subset of JavaÃÂs features while remaining small and self-contained.
We started this project with the goal producing small, self-contained executables from a mix of Java and C++, targeting four platforms: Win32 (i386), Mac OS X (PPC), and Linux (i386 and amd64). GCC is an ideal tool for this purpose, since it is widely ported, and its Java and C++ compilers produce ABI-compatible object code

If you use Linux, you should use JPackage
Life of Linux System and Network Administrators and Developers would be easier if all Java software vendors started to use JPackage guidelines when b uilding their installation packages. — Fernando Lozano

JFreeChart now runs with F/OSS Java VMs
Has JFreeChart escaped the Java Trap? Yes!!! At least partially, if the chart image below is anything to go by. It has been created using JamVM, GNU Classpath, Cairo (via the bindings provided by the Java-Gnome project), JFreeChart and a custom class CairoGraphics2D.java - no proprietary software required!

Escaping the Java Trap: A practical road map to the Free Software and Open Source alternatives
This document, created colaboratively by many open source Java developers from meetings initiated by SouJava and edited by Mark Wielaard, presents the current state of Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects that aim to deliver a complete Java stack. It provides an overview about runtimes, compilers, libraries, applications, packaging into Linux distributions and Java SE / EE coverage and certification initiatives. It's a great place to start learning about the effort to have compatible F/OSS Java implementations.

JamVM 1.4.0
From Mark Wielaard:
Robert never pushes JamVM very hard. But he really should! His latest JamVM 1.4.0 release adds impressive new features (Soft/Weak/Phantom References, optimized garbage collector, language and reflection type access checks, GNU Classpath 0.19 and CVS support plus improved/added support for PPC-32/64, AMD64 and kfreebsd) and feels really stable. Go Robert!

Moving to Linux
During a recent debate about Java, Linux and OSS I have observed that some old fears are still alive and are still avoiding a collaboration between the OSS community and the Java community. Underneath the traditional flames involved in such discussion, there is an open question to be answered: Why the Java developers doesn't use Linux as development platform ?. — Felipe Gaucho

ZDNet UK: UK Financial Organisations Offer Firefox Support
'We recognise that more and more people are using Firefox, so it's something we want to support,' says one high-street bank...

MadPenguin: Ubuntu On The Business Desktop
I managed to work for a month and a half before the Boss noticed I was using Linux --and that was only because he happened to glance at my screen...

The What, Why and When of Free Software in India
Talking with one of the organizers of FSF-India about the role of free software as both technology and philosophy.

ZDNet: Approach and Appearance in Relation to Open Source
Marten Mickos, CEO of open source database company MySQL AB, was motivated by the recent controversy over SAP executive Shai Agassi's remarks about open source to write the following perspective piece...

Linux Journal: Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes
We're hearing tales of two scenarios--one pessimistic, one optimistic--for the future of the Net. If the paranoids are right, the Net's toast. If they're not, it will be because we fought to save it, perhaps in a new way we haven't talked about before. Davids, meet your Goliaths...

eWeek: New Linux Study Suggests Fundamental Microsoft Creditability Problems
Another day, another lame attempt by Microsoft to show that Windows is better than Linux...

An interview with Brian Koontz, creator of the Open Source Technology program at North Lake College

Open Source for college credit? Yes, it's true! Daniel interviews Brian Koontz, Computer Science program coordinator and OSS zealot at North Lake College. Brian created a certificate program for Open Source Technology at North Lake College in Texas. Daniel Brookshier interviews Brian about the certificate and the open source impact of open source.

SearchOpenSource: Open Source Developers Bag Bugs Faster, Survey Says
Open source software (OSS) developers find and fix software bugs quickly, according to new analyst research released this week...

ZDNet UK: Why Governments Really Choose Open Source
Discovering why some public sector organisations are so enthusiastic about community developed software often means looking beyond a balance sheet...

Sun Announces Support for Postgres Database on Solaris 10

SearchOpenSource: Samba's Terpstra Shoots Down Open Source Misinformation
"In this interview, Terpstra shoots down some pernicious misunderstandings about Linux and open source and explains how IT organizations often end up shunning their IT planning duties...

Ubuntu Review
Approximately in June or July of 2005, I started weaning myself off of my powerbook G4, and learning the Gnome environment under Ubuntu (v5.04, now v5.10). Overall, it's been a terrific experience, and it's looking like I've come here to settle down. So I thought I'd summarize my experiences, from my perspective as a Java software developer, and as a computer user in general. — Eitan Suez

Java2D/JOGL Interoperability
Details (and screenshots) on the improved Java2D/JOGL interop story in the latest Mustang and JOGL builds... More improvements to the OpenGL-based Java2D pipeline in Mustang b51 (and b53)... And a big thank you to the attendees and event staff at JavaChina 2005... — Chris Campbell

Real, supported, module development has arrived
If I were starting a project based on the netbeans platform now, I would not use my cluster build harness. I'd use 5.0 builds, and I'd begin with Geertjan's (most finished) tutorial. — Rich Unger

Java Research License Update
Sun has updated its Java Research License (JRL) to address several concerns brought to us by the developer community. This revision better clarifies Sun's intent for the JRL and should help to make the license more agreeable to those who may have had questions about some of its language in the past. These clarifications should not affect any projects currently using the JRL on java.net. — Ray Gans

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