Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:54:13 +0200 From: Mark Evenson <mark.evenson@gmx.at> To: freebsd-java@freebsd.org Cc: java@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Why do you run/prefer Java on FreeBSD? Message-ID: <46B1A9C5.7080009@gmx.at> In-Reply-To: <9F90521E-76CF-4C93-84E1-B1083F76C2A5@FreeBSD.org> References: <9F90521E-76CF-4C93-84E1-B1083F76C2A5@FreeBSD.org>
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Ernst de Haan wrote:
> Java on FreeBSD-folks,
>
>
> I intend to write an article on why and when Java on FreeBSD is a good
> choice. I'd love to get insights from you guys (and girls?).
>
> So:
> - why do you run Java on FreeBSD (instead of Solaris or Linux)?
FreeBSD is a superior system for the causal system administration tasks
that I need to perform. The operating system is rev'd as a single,
integrated source tree ("/usr/src") shared with a wide community of
users who ensure that it is robust and "battle-tested". With the
combination of the ports system, almost any open source package that I
care to use can be downloaded, compiled, dependency checked, and
installed. Being able to use a system for which *all* of the source
that runs can be quickly inspected proves to be a superior
differentiating resource.
> - do you consider Java on FreeBSD fast?
It's fast enough, as my work is more research than production. If I
really wanted performance, I would probably go with OpenSolaris, since I
would expect that SUNW would have tuned things well on their operating
system. Surprisingly, this has not always been the case, especially for
solaris-ia32, but from anecdotal evidence (i.e. no benchmarks) the
performance of Java 1.6 on solaris-ia32 seems quite good.
I suspect that with the further optimization to multithreading within
the kernel in the upcoming FreeBSD 7 release, things will only get
better for performance.
> - do you consider it stable/reliable?
Certainly. And when FreeBSD java does have problems, you can get out
and push easily. The freebsd-java mailing list is especially responsive
resource when intelligent bug reports are filed.
> - do you consider it secure?
Sure, FreeBSD Java is secure as much as the base Java libraries are
secure. If I cared about security for an application, I would isolate
the necessary JVM in a FreeBSD Jail.
> - which version of Java are you running?
Java 1.5, both the diablo binaries and the compile-from-source version.
> - was the installation of Java easy or a pain? (or somewhere in between?)
Extremely easy:
freebsd$ portupgrade -Ns java/jdk15
> - how important is Java 1.6 for you?
Java 1.6 is a medium priority. Source code bases are starting to appear
that seem to be Java 1.6 specific, although I thought everything was
supposed to be backwards compatible, but apparently there is some
"breakage" in the SQL interfaces. I don't really have specifics.
--
<Mark.Evenson@gmx.at>
"[T]his is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into."
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