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I define "easy installation" by whether I have to go out of my way to install something. With java/jdk14, I had to go to the Sun website and download two or three tarballs, and then go to a 3rd-party site and download a patchset. With this new one, it sounds like I just have to go to one website.

But the main problem (in my mind) remains: I still have to load up my browser and go to a website to install the port. Not cool. If all I have to do is say "I accept", why can't that be put into the makefile? Other ports are interactive, why can't this one show me the agreement and allow me to accept/decline?

I believe this was discussed on the mailing list -- Sun requires it to be done this way.

Sun needs your explicit consent to their license to be able to sue you for violation of the EULA, if they have to.

cheers,
dalibor topic

While this is great news for FreeBSD, wouldn't it have been better in the long run for them to focus their efforts on the free java implementation?

This is basically a short-term solution.

In this case, FreeBSD didn't have to reimplement all of the java libraries, which form the core of the Java platform. They just have to reimplement the JNI code. This allows them to push out a working, stable and possibly optimized java implementation in less time.

In its present status, free java is not enterprise-ready yet and FreeBSD is used extensively on servers, so a stable java implementation would be very useful.

I'd say one jump forward for freeBSD, two steps back for their efforts on the free java implementation.

I use PC-BSD (FreeBSD 6.0) and this sounds great!

*UPDATE*

Flash support and OSS are the only things i have trouble with although PBI's make it much easier. PC-BSD uses Linux's Flash and it works fine(after fiddling for a couple of minutes...).

Edited 2006-04-06 00:43

It WILL be better in the long run. The race has begun awhile back, it's not time for the peak sprint yet

I'm all for a free Java implementation. Give it time and it will happen. If not by just the community, by Sun themselves. We'll have to wait and see. Those who think I am crazy? I've seen stranger things happen in my lifetime. Linux Expos being full of people with suits and ties for one I also saw IBM spraypaint "Peace, Love and Linux" penguins all over the streets of New York a few years ago.

Time will tell.

I second both of those points

The state of native Flash is deplorable, even though it's not the FreeBSD project's fault. The java stuff is mildly annoying, but I'm glad to hear that things will be getting easier.

In order to get a site working with Flash today, I had to remove my native Firefox build and install linux-firefox + linux-flashplugin7. Seems that the native version of Flash only supports up to 4.0 ... guess the specs have been advancing too rapidly for the project to keep up.

The Java stuff is somewhat less annoying than that, now that I've got the procedure downpat. But for a new user, it's both annoying and intimidating. I'm glad that they'll be able to fix it.

It may take a few hours for your system to compile Java for your platform, but it's not that hard, and you only have to do it once.

The Java is a binary only release, meaning that it can't be recompiled for other platforms.

!!!

--- "If you only know apt-get, synaptic, yum, yast, ./configure && make && make install, etc, please don't talk so big about FOSS"


HmmM... I don't get you... You must be too smart for me. Plese explain that more clearly...

What is what bother you, the fact that I find FreBSD an excelent OS, that I asked about 'Classpath', or that 'the guys from Sun don't go to church on sundays' as they should...???

!!!

There was a binary version that ran on top of the linux compatibility layer, there was also a native version but it was a pain due to the necessary downloading of source and licensing agreements and some other annoyances like you still needed the linux compat version. All in all, this saves time on installing java on freebsd.

Edited 2006-04-06 03:05

Yeah there were ways of installing Java on FreeBSD, but do to licensing it was a PITA. This will make it a who hell of alot simpler and less buggy. For example Jdk1.5 before this, was buggy and barely ran.

1.5 is a bit faster, but mainly on the desktop end of things, where Swing's speed and appearance saw serious work. 1.6 will continue this desktop emphasis, with dramatic Swing improvements and more speed improvements for the client side (though stack allocation has been deferred to 1.7).

The advantages of 1.5 are mainly for developers: the addition of Generics, Annotations, Enums and the new For-Loop made a lot of tasks a whole lot easier. Less trumpetted advantages are the new high-performance java.util.concurrency classes and StringBuilder class.

However no final implementation of Java EE 5 (J2EE 1.5 using the old versioning system) has been released yet. I think it's due around August. When it's released, companies will start migrating to version 5 in a big way, as it uses all Java 5's features to dramatically reduce the amount of code (and in particular, deployment descriptors) needed when writing enterprise applications. Until then, most companies are in a fairly conservative holding pattern.

Edited 2006-04-06 11:29

>The advantages of 1.5 are mainly for developers:
>the addition of Generics, Annotations, Enums

It's beginning to sound like Ada.

I look forward to it, even tho' we (company) probably won't move to it for another year or so.

> Wrong. It is possible to build a native Java on FreeBSD (all platforms)

No, YOU are wrong. There is no Linux compat layer for SPARC, so you can't do the Linux binary bootstrap on SPARC chips (even if there is the appropriate binary -- I've not checked). There is a version for the Alpha, but not SPARC.

I've done the x86 install many times, so I know the drill. It just does not work on SPARC. You can check the SPARC mailing list -- this is well known. You can also try the SPARC java port, which will inform you that it cannot work on this platform.