From owner-freebsd-java@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 2 10:20:58 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: java@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E755816A41F for ; Thu, 2 Aug 2007 10:20:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mark.evenson@gmx.at) Received: from mail.gmx.net (mail.gmx.net [213.165.64.20]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4E84E13C49D for ; Thu, 2 Aug 2007 10:20:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mark.evenson@gmx.at) Received: (qmail invoked by alias); 02 Aug 2007 09:54:17 -0000 Received: from colo-69-31-82-90.pilosoft.com (EHLO [IPv6:::1]) [69.31.82.90] by mail.gmx.net (mp047) with SMTP; 02 Aug 2007 11:54:17 +0200 X-Authenticated: #32963322 X-Provags-ID: V01U2FsdGVkX191Pmhd/M51gsNOr97vlFnuxd3CwWQ9ChKP8m0AHz 1T01eDgT/GPkoZ Message-ID: <46B1A9C5.7080009@gmx.at> Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:54:13 +0200 From: Mark Evenson User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 (X11/20070723) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: gmane.os.freebsd.devel.java To: Ernst de Haan References: <9F90521E-76CF-4C93-84E1-B1083F76C2A5@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <9F90521E-76CF-4C93-84E1-B1083F76C2A5@FreeBSD.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Y-GMX-Trusted: 0 Cc: java@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Why do you run/prefer Java on FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-java@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting Java to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:20:59 -0000 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. -- "[T]his is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into."