Google technologist derides Oracle's lack of developer focus

When it bowed out of the JavaOne conference this year, Google cited Oracle's lawsuit over Java use in Google Android. But one Google technologist suggests a second possible reason for Google's reticence: Oracle's lack of focus on developers.

In a blog entry posted Monday, Tim Bray, a Google developer advocate widely known as being one of the inventors of XML, recounted a conversation he had with someone "familiar" with how Oracle runs its OpenWorld conference, alongside which JavaOne will be held this year. Bray asked why the company didn't focus more on developers at this event. The individual responded that, for Oracle, building rapport with developers was not its chief priority.

"The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship, between an Oracle business expert and a customer business leader ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation; in fact, they're apt to be dangerous distractions," Bray quoted the unnamed individual.

Although a short post, it does provide a glimpse into how priorities differedbetween Oracle and Sun Microsystems, which Oracle purchased in January.

Oracle executives have expressed enthusiasm for supporting the development communities around some widely used Sun technologiessuch as MySQL and Java. But other less successful or harder-to-commercialize projects -- such as OpenSolaris,

OpenOffice, and OpenSSO -- have seemingly been neglected or even abandoned by the company.

A number of reader-contributed comments on the post noted that Oracle's focus on the business side of technology may not necessarily be counted as a negative for the company, especially when compared to the developer-focused ways of the less successful Sun.

"How is this a bad thing? It's all about building the best applications for your customers," one poster noted. "Imagine if airlines treated their relationship with the flier as the most important. Imagine if politicians treated their relationship with constituents as most important."

Bray was a Sun Microsystems chief technologist who resigned from Oracle shortly after its purchase of Sun. Bray posted the comment on his personal blog site, where he stresses the opinions he expresses are not Google's.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Oracle silent on Java independence initiative

While Java founder James Gosling has campaigned for Oracle to place Java under the jurisdiction of an independent foundation, Oracle is declining to comment at all on the notion.

Asked about Gosling's efforts during a press question-and-answer session at the Oracle OpenWorld conference Tuesday in San Francisco, Oracle's Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of product development, simply declined to comment.

[ Kurian and Oracle detailed Java ambitions on Monday evening. | Keep up with app dev issues and trends with InfoWorld's Fatal Exception blogand Developer World newsletter. ]

"I will not talk about that," Kurian said.

Gosling has sought to hold Oracle's feet to the fire on an effort the company supported in 2007 to have the Java Community Process become an independent, vendor-neutral standards organization. That was before Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, which had jurisdiction over Java at the time.  Oracle completed its Sun acquisition in January.

Kurian did, however, clarify Oracle's position on the fate of JavaFX Mobile, the mobile device variant of the JavaFX rich Internet application platform founded by Sun. An Oracle official described JavaFX Mobile as being on hold Monday, but Kurian said JavaFX Mobile will not run on the CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration) lightweight Java Virtual Machine, but will run on other virtual machines.

Kurian touted Java capabilities and ambitions for mobile devices, stressing there are 31 times more Java-enabled mobile phones shipping every year than Apple iPhone and Google Android combined.

"I would not underestimate our capability [of] delivering a new Java platform" in this space, Kurian said.

Kurian also pledged continued support of the NetBeans open source IDE Oracle inherited from Sun.

Also, John Fowler, Oracle executive vice president of systems, said the final version of the Solaris 11 Unix OS is due next year. Oracle's Cloud Office collaborative application suite, meanwhile, is nearing a milestone. The suite is for the Web and mobile devices.

"We're  right on the edge of having a preview for it," said Edward Screven, Oracle chief corporate architect.

This article, "Oracle silent on Java independence initiative," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in theInfoWorld Daily newsletter.

Read more about developer world in InfoWorld's Developer World Channel.

Hibernate 3.6.0.Beta4 release

Hibernate 3.6.0.Beta4 has been released incorporating mostly minor bugfixes and improvements. Most of the work this cycle went into the improved documentation. For those not aware we are planning on splitting the documentation into 2 books:

1. a Getting Started Guide, see HHH-5441 : this is a collection of tutorials and information on the Hibernate community, etc.
2. a Developer Guide, see HHH-5466 : this is essentially the information from the existing manual, but presented in a more topical fashion.

The Getting Started Guide is mostly done. There is a single subtask outstanding to incorporate a tutorial on basic Envers usage, but it already contains tutorials on basic Hibernate using (both with hbm.xml and annotation usage) as well as a basic JPA usage tutorial. They all build on the same schema and domain classes, in hopes it will be useful illustrating how to move from one paradigm to another. In fact they all perform the exact same steps for illustration (except for the Envers tutorial when it gets done, since it need to present a very different use case to usefully show Envers usage).

We also are trying out actually bundling up the tutorials in a working project this time (a maven mutli-module project) to make it even easier to get up and running with the tutorials. We are still working through the details of hosting that in terms of referencing the zip from the tutorials (thats the problem with modularizing stuff). Anyway, in the interm I thought this one was close enough that I went ahead and made it available from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3636512/getting-started-guide/index.html. Some notes:

• This url is only made available temporarily
• The documentation references a link to obtain the code. That link is not accurate. We are still deciding where these will live and how they will be referenced. In the meantime I have zipped up the code and made it available here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3636512/getting-started-guide/tutorials.tar.gz (again temporarily).

See http://hibernate.org/downloads.html for details on obtaining the release. Or try http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3636512/getting-started-guide/index.html#hibernate-gsg-obtain ;)

Please report any issues to JIRA. Visit us on IRC or the forums if you have usage questions.

source: hibernate.org

Quick Tip: An Introduction to jQuery Templating

JavaScript Templating is a neat idea: it allows you to easily convert JSON to HTML without having to parse it. At Microsoft’s MIX10 conference, they announced that they are starting to contribute to the jQuery team. One of their efforts is to provide atemplating plugin. In this quick tip, I’ll show you how to use it!
You’ll need the data to template; you’ll likely retrieve JSON from your server; of course, Object / Array literals work just as well, so that’s what we use:

1. var data = [
2. { name : "John",  age : 25 },
3. { name : "Jane",  age : 49 },
4. { name : "Jim",   age : 31 },
5. { name : "Julie", age : 39 },
6. { name : "Joe",   age : 19 },
7. { name : "Jack",  age : 48 }
8. ];

var data = [
  { name : "John",  age : 25 },
  { name : "Jane",  age : 49 },
  { name : "Jim",   age : 31 },
  { name : "Julie", age : 39 },
  { name : "Joe",   age : 19 },
  { name : "Jack",  age : 48 }
 ];

The template is written in tags; for each item in your JSON, the template will render the HTML; then, it will return the entire HTML fragment to you. We can get to the JavaScript values from within the template by using {% and %} as tags. We can also execute regular JavaScript within these tags. Here’s our template:

1. <li>
2. <span>{%= $i + 1 %}span>
3. <p><strong>Name: strong> {%= name %}p>
4. {% if ($context.options.showAge) {  %}
5. <p><strong>Age: strong> {%= age %}p>
6. {% } %}
7. li>

  {%= $i + 1 %}  Name:  {%= name %}

{% if ($context.options.showAge) {  %}   Age:  {%= age %}

{% } %} 

To render the data with the template, call the plugin; pass the data to the plugin method; you can optionally pass in an options object as well. (These aren’t predefined options; they’re values you want to use within the template, perhaps for branching.)

1. $("#listTemplate").render(data, { showAge : true }).appendTo("ul");

$("#listTemplate").render(data, { showAge : true }).appendTo("ul");

Source: http://net.tutsplus.com

What Is the Top Mobile Platform for Open Source Developers?

Mobile platforms like Apple's iPhone and Google's Android have become a key focus for open source developers. And the trend is only increasing, though new research has found that over the course of the last year, there has been a shift in which mobile platform has the most open source development activity.
A new study by Black Duck Software found that at the end of 2009, there were 224 new open source software projects on Google's Android operating system, bringing its total to 357 open source projects in all. That's enough to leapfrog Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone to take the top spot in the number of open source projects being developed on either platform.
Android's 2009 open source software tally represents a 168 percent gain over the number of projects reported for it in 2008.
In contrast, Apple's iPhone garnered 76 new open source software project in 2009, representing 43 percent growth over 2008. In total, Black Duck reported that at the end of 2009 there were 252 open source software projects for Apple's iPhone.

Overall, 2009 was a year of expansion for open source development across the whole of the mobile realm.
"We're seeing robust growth in open source projects for mobile platforms, with 39 percent growth in the number of projects that are available [and] over 3,200 available now," Peter Vescuso, executive vice president of marketing and business development at Black Duck Software, told InternetNews.com. "The dynamics within that are pretty interesting with Android representing really the bulk of the growth with 224 projects, which is about 25 percent of all new projects."
Coming in third place behind Android and iPhone is Windows Mobile with 75 new projects in 2009, raising its total to 248 open source software projects in all. According to a recent study,Windows Mobile has been losing share in terms of adoption over the course of the last year.
Black Duck's data comes from its knowledge base, which is produced by a team of people referred to as "spiders" that scour every known open source repository to collect data. The Black Duck knowledge base is also at the heart ofBlack Duck's business, which aims to provide users with information on code licensing and related issues.
In terms of methodology, Black Duck's report isn't limited to looking at only full-fledged, downloadable applications that reside in an app store.
"Not all of these projects are applications. Some are but there also libraries, widgets and frameworks," Vescuso said. "None of these projects come from app stores -- they come from the project repositories. We're going right to the source. We're not going to the stores where these projects might be available for download."
Vescuso noted that Android likely gained in popularity in 2009 thanks in part to its open source nature and the fact it has the support of a wide range of handset vendors and operators.
Still, Vescuso added that open source and the iPhone also have an important relationship.
"Even though you think of the iPhone as a closed, proprietary platform, it is significantly built on open source," Vescuso said. "It heavily leverages open source and so it benefits from open source. In an odd way ... as the iPhone succeeds, to a large extent, open source is succeeding -- even though iPhone is not an open platform."

Source: http://www.developer.com

10 Cool Firefox Add-Ons

This is a must-read for Firefox fans! We'll review 10 cool add-ons that will make your cross-platform Mozilla web browser even better. We'll review add-ons to help fix annoyances, save time, discover advanced functionality, and stay connected. Lets get started!

#1 NewTabURL to control your new tab page

One of my pet peeves about tabbed web browsers is the blank tab page. More specifically, it annoys me when I click to open another tab and I get a "New Tab" page, or completely blank page. I'm a Google fan; I want Google to load. I just don't understand why Microsoft and Mozilla won't make the default setting load your homepage for new tabs!
If you're the same way, you may have already checked (and double-checked) the tab settings in Firefox and found no homepage setting for new tabs. However, there are add-ons that will help; for instance, NewTabURL. This add-on lets you choose the URL for new tabs: blank page, home page, current page, or specific URL.
NewTabURL also gives you another feature that automatically loads URLs from the clipboard. For example, you can copy a website address from a document, browser, or anywhere and when you open another tab in Firefox, the copied URL will automatically load in the new tab.

#2 iMacros for Firefox for automating browser tasks and tests

This is a very interesting add-on, giving you the ability to record and play macros in Firefox. Pretty much anything repetitive you do in Firefox you can automate with iMacros. You can teach it to fill out forms or download and upload files. It can import or export data to and from CSV or XML files or databases. It even includes support for working with PDF files, capturing screenshots, user agent simulation, and proxies.
iMacros for Firefox also includes a password manager. These passwords can be used within macros. Plus they can be secured with 256-Bit AES encryption

#3 Web Developer to design, test, and troubleshoot sites and applications

This add-on is great for anyone that designs or maintains websites or web applications. It gives you a new Firefox menu and toolbar with various web developer tools. Use it to test, inspect, or troubleshoot cookies, forms, images, and many other web components.
It gives you control over client-side settings by letting you easily toggle Java, JavaScript, cache, cookies, pop-blocker, and other features on and off. You can view CSS details and even edit the style sheets to see live results. It includes many inspection and manipulation features for forms and images. It also features code validaters and many other miscellaneous tools.

#4 Yoono for keeping tabs on your social networking and IM friends

Yoono is a must-have add-on for anyone that communicates via social networks and/or instant messaging services. It can serve as a single spot to check your social networking feeds and update your status for all networks at once. If you use multiple sites or services, this add-on can save you a lot of time.

#5 Gmail Manager for quick and easy Gmail access

If Google's Gmail is your email provider of choice, you ought to check out the Gmail Manager add-on. It gives you a icon in the status bar of Firefox, loaded with shortcuts to create and checks messages among other tasks. You'll be notified of incoming messages. It even detects email links and can bring up Gmail when clicking on mailto links. Best of all, Gmail Manager supports multiple accounts.
Source: http://www.linuxplanet.com

The New Open Source Business Model Still Relies on Closed Source

Over the last couple of years a number of different open source business strategies have evolved. According to the 451 Group, it's an evolution that includes the broader adoption and usage of open source overall by both open source and proprietary software vendors.
Back in 2008, the 451 Group put out a landmark report on open source business strategies. According to 451 Group analyst Matt Aslett there has been some change since then. Among the changes is a decline in the dual-licensing strategy that was once a popular business strategy for vendors aiming to profit from their open source technologies.
"I didn't expect it to be significant but when I looked at the vendors we analyzed in 2008 16 percent were using dual-licensing strategy," Aslett, analyst at the 451 Group told InternetNews.com. "In 2010, it's just 5 percent of the same 114 vendors -- that really bears out the fact that there has been a shift away from dual licensing ."
Dual-licensing is an approach whereby the vendor provides their software under both an open source and a commercial license. It's an approach that was popularized by open source database vendor MySQL. Instead of going the dual-licensing route as a business strategy, other models and approaches have emerged to take its place.

The Open Core model

"We've seen a few of the dual-licensed vendors that have dropped the commercial version and have gone the pure open source approach and just relying on support and services revenue," Aslett said. "We've seen a lot more move to the Open Core model. We saw that grow from 24 percent of vendors in 2008 to 30 percent today."
Aslett defines the Open Core as one where there is a core open source project for which the vendor supplies proprietary extensions. While the dual-licensing is different from open core, there is at least one key similarity.
"At the end of the day both open core and dual-licensing involve commercially licensed proprietary software," Aslett said. "Both strategies enable a vendor to have some control over the commercial aspects of the business strategy and the enterprise version."
Overall, Aslett noted that much has changed in open source usage since his 2008 report such that it is now more difficult to actually isolate and identify all of the vendors that have an open source business strategy. More vendors than ever are now using open source at different points in their process and applications and usage is not limited to pure-play open source vendors.
"If you look know and see how a company like IBM, Oracle or SAP or Microsoft are making money from open source it's not in the way that we've traditionally seen open source specialists make money," Aslett said. "It's though complementary products and services. So those are very different strategies that don't necessarily focus on commercializing the open source software directly."
For those vendors that are open source specialists, Aslett sees the big challenge as figuring out how to convert community users into paying users. He noted that it's a balancing act for many vendors as not every user wants or needs to be sold on additional services.
"I think that a lot of vendors have gotten better at realizing to not try and convert all community users as it actually could have a detrimental effect on the image of the company," Aslett said. "So they've been a lot more clever about the techniques they use to make sure they capture users when they're at the point that they want to engage in a subscription or get a commercially licensed extension."
Source: http://www.linuxplanet.com