Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 02:08:08 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@atkielski.com>, <absinthe@pobox.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Java on FreeBSD Message-ID: <000a01c166aa$ef3e5e40$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <00f601c165ff$53417870$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: Anthony Atkielski [mailto:anthony@atkielski.com] >Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 5:40 AM >To: absinthe@pobox.com; Ted Mittelstaedt; freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: Java on FreeBSD > > >That is very wishful thinking. Compared to the total range of applications >available for UNIX systems, Java is barely a blip on the radar. And >I daresay >it is even less important for free variants of UNIX such as FreeBSD or Linux, >because people running these systems are almost certainly concerned with >avoiding ties to any kind of proprietary technology. > Whoah there! My comments should not be in any way, shape or form be construed to imply that FreeBSD systems should ONLY be tied to open systems. After all I did write a book that has quite a bit about co-mingling Windows and FreeBSD in the commercial enterprise - I definitely don't subscribe or advise the idea that people running FreeBSD are concerned with avoiding ties to proprietary technology. Some certainly are but I am very interested in replacing components of a Windows network with FreeBSD and if that's not embracing ties to proprietary technology I don't know what is!! > >On the contrary, it is quite logical. If you want Java as a proprietary >solution, you may as well run it on a proprietary OS distributed by the same >vendor. It seems logical that Java would run better on Solaris than on any >other OS. > There's another more overriding issue that your missing Anthony, that's one of support. If a client paid me to design a complete Java-based system on UNIX I'd be very hard pressed to recommend FreeBSD purely because of the support issue. From a political standpoint, you know darn well that Sun is bending over backward to try to expand Java/Solaris solutions in the market. While I know that I could probably get a running Java/FreeBSD solution going for them, if something blows up (maybe there's some problem with Java itself that's to blame) then the threat of splashing the headline "Solaris+Java IT Project fails to the tune of millions of dollars" across the pulp fiction world is going to have Sun in the door fixing it that day. If I'm the dog sitting in the chair being asked to explain to the client why the Java project is blowing chunks, I'm going to darn well want to be able to say "Sun made Java and Solaris and Sun's own engineers can't (or won't) fix it" If I don't say that because I'm running FreeBSD, then when the client calls Sun and screams then Sun is going to blame FreeBSD even if the problem is in Java and I'm going to be out the door quicker than grapes through a goose. Now, if I happened to be employed by that client as their administrator, the situation would be reversed, I'd most likely not touch Solaris at all simply because of all the technical issues. For starters I've run Solaris 8 and FreeBSD 4.x on the same hardware for comparison's sake and Solaris runs noticeably slower. And I know that if I do use FreeBSD then it's going to enforce some kind of standards compliance, so that in the future we aren't going to be screwed when things are changed. > >The idea is to find the best solution for your application, not to >demonstrate >slavish devotion to any one software package or product. > No, the idea is not to FIND the best solution, it's to DEFINE the best solution. If you have a 100% FreeBSD shop and your admins all know it and use it then your a fool to introduce the odd Solaris server just to run Java. The list of things that comprise "best solution" changes depending on who's point of view your using and what's most important to them. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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