Sun has big plans for its Java Desktop System and on Tuesday announced a new program that will allow its desktop Linux variant to run on all major Linux distributions. While Sun remains fully committed to the JDS on both the Solaris and Sun Ray environments, it seeks to address the Linux space going forward and offer customers choice in this regard. In addition, Sun on Wednesday is expected to announce that its Java Enterprise System server software now supports Microsoft’s Windows and Hewlett-Packard’s UX operating systems.
This is a good move by Sun, in my opinion. I only wish that SGI would have done this eons ago… just imagine L/Iris… mmmm… alas, at least Sun is doing something.
Jb
I do not get Sun. They have a Huge branding advantage with “Java Desktop SYstem” and it can be a great show case for latest Java technology… They could integrate all the work they have done for Java, including Java 3D, Java Imaging API and all the nice stuff, and deliver a desktop which has a perfect Java enviroment…
Else, what do they do? They come up with a Gnome (which is actually good) fitted with a crappy theme and slip in a JRE, that’s it… God even the Java applications shipped with JDS behave very different with each other…
My dream of JDS would be:
Based on Gnome, solid theme, solid looks with some Sun touch…
Some basic apps from Gnome..
Latest Java, with a perfectly matching theme for Gnome…
All the Java Goodies (JavaMail, Java3D, Java Imaging, Java this, Java that)..
Netbeans 5 (Btw, it has the best ever GUI builder), that comes with templates for creating JDS complaint applications…
And webstart kind of thing integrated…
Sun should have developed this thing 5 years ago, when Linux was just taking off…
My 2 cents
Sun quite often announce “big plans” for Linux and JDS. The problem is the “reality destruction field” around Sun announcements these days, so that after a few days you’re never really sure whether there ever was an announcement, let alone what happened. I seem to recall previous announcements about provisioning JDS to millions or possibly hundreds or thousands of millions of PCs in the Far East. Alas, like a dawn mist, all sense of reality to do with these seems to have vanished, leaving Sun claiming that they are the biggest Linux operator in the world and no one believing them because the evidence has disappeared.
Sun is a still a big company, far bigger than Red Hat and Novell combined I would imagine. They could do so much for open sauce. It’s a mystery why they won’t come down off the fence and either really go for Linux or really go for Solaris instead, no half measures. They have it all – the size, the hardware, the corporate infrastructure, the R&D, decades of nix experience.
But I guess the reality destruction field has struck, leaving Sun only imagining they are doing awesome stuff, whereas in reality they are still stuck in the office holding their arse with both hands and the rest of us truck on with Red Hat, SUSE or Debian.
Tell me why can’t I install Star Office, Evolution and Gnome on Gentoo or Ubuntu?
Is there something specific SUn is solving in JDS for Linux?. I can quite understand JDS for Solaris.
Who cares really?
No one cares.
It’s all in the name. As far as most people are concerned, “Java Desktop” is an oxymoron.
“Java Desktop” is an oxymoron.
Not related to JDS, but…
You might want to have a look at:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/hansmuller/archive/2005/10/official_sw…
“You might want to have a look at:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/hansmuller/archive/2005/10/official_sw…
Wow. I find that both interesting and frightening. Interesting because I had no idea that Swing was that popular. And frightening because Swing _is_ that popular.
Still, I’d bet a large sum of money that 99% of Swing development is comprised of internal apps for large companies. Not that it makes the statistic any less significant… just less interesting.
In any case, thanks for pointing it out.
Meanwhile, Sun won’t add JES support for IBM’s AIX. “If we saw demand for that we would do it. We have not seen demand,” John Loiacono, executive vice president of software at Sun, said Tuesday in a meeting with reporters here.
Hmm, doesn’t that sound like the exact words IBM used against Solars on the x86 platform?