[TriLUG] Re: Managed languages (was .NET development on Linux)

Joseph Tate jtate at dragonstrider.com
Thu Jun 17 10:56:01 EDT 2004


David A. Cafaro wrote:

> Ok, quick question, but why do you say Java isn't well supported under
> Linux?  I'm just a little confused on that.  I've been using Java to
> write and run programs under Linux with no problems, and with what seems
> like very good support.  Between JVM/JDKs from Sun/IBM/BlackDown/Apache
> Geronimo, development tools from Eclipse, SlickEdit, Apache.org and
> assorted sqlDB drivers, WebServer Apps, and other items, Java seems to
> be very well supported.  Could you clarify that some, I'm worried I'm
> missing something.  Thanks.
> 

Yes, I should clarify.  Red Hat/Fedora Linux does not have a JRE out of 
the box.  I have yet to come across a distro that offers it.  Hopping 
into the #Java channel on Freenode, and posing the question of which 
distro is best for Java development I didn't get an answer.  Downloading 
and installing the Sun JRE has been tricky at best.  Non-professionals 
aren't going to know about blackdown/IBM/Geronimo, let alone where to 
get it.  Well supported to me means trivial to install and use by a 
non-professional, and easy to find.  Sun's done a better job recently, 
with the Windows side, but Linux is still pretty substandard.

Don't get me wrong: I love Java.  It's my favorite language.  It's rich, 
and powerful, and you can do almost anything with it.  But it's got a 
lot of baggage.  These are problems that have mostly been solved on 
Windows.  But they are not handled out of the box on any other platform 
but Solaris.  Gjc will compile Java code to native, and therefore your 
Java code _will_ be just a standard executable.

If the baggage has been handled elegantly by you or some other source, 
I'd love to hear about it.  What I want is what Mr. Merrill has 
described.  Execute Java code as a normal app.

Also, as a kind of watermark: Occasionally I'll log into the Durham 
County Library System's web catalog system (a Java applet deployed via 
browser).  It's relatively quick using IE and MSJVM, but it's slower 
than molasses on a cold day in FireFox using a Sun supplied JRE in 
either Windows or Linux.  Could be Mozilla's fault, but it's 
unacceptable.  Oh, and Eclipse?  The last Milestone 3.0 release doesn't 
run with IBM's Java.  It requires the Sun JDK.  Talk about screwball.

Joseph



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