Alan Dunkley wrote:
On Friday 19 Dec 2003 5:38 am, Ted wrote:
Anyone tell me if there are any major differences between Blackdown
and Sun java and if so which is preferable?
In my experiemce this is not much between them. I tend to favour the
"official" sun version because it leads and others follow. Blackdown lags
Sun by a minor release or so, viz Sun offers 1.4.2 whereas Blackdown offer
1.4.1 Unless you need the absolute new features that Sun offer, its down to
personal choce, so just flip a coin. :-)
I'm in close contact with Java programmers. According to their expert testimony
Java and J2EE from Sun is the best choice if you're considering applications in
web services. For practically all business applications and also a significant
number of technical programs, the official Java and J2EE has no real competitor,
with the exception of Microsoft .NET.
May I suggest a prudent strategy: Learn the offical Java (J2RE, J2SE) from Sun
and the Java Consortium, also the J2EE architecture, packages and patterns built
on it. After you have direct experience and technical background in the real
thing, you'll be in a better position to judge whether or not you should move to
some other version like gcj, kaffe and japhar (see gnu.org for details).
The Blackdown group depends on contractual licensing from Sun (see their
"Statement of Purpose" at blackdown.org). They are trying to serve as a bridge
between the open-source Linux community and commercial interest:
<quote>
Blackdown Statement of Purpose
We each are dedicated to the professional development of the Java platform for
Linux based on the community source concept. We see participation in the
Blackdown project as a cutting-edge opportunity for intellectual cooperation
between the open source community and the commercial software industry. We each
are committed to abiding by the agreements we've made with Sun and other
technology vendors. We aim to use their good will to further the cause of
independence for software developers around the world. A bridge between the open
source community and the commercial software development world is to everyone's
advantage, and we would like to exemplify that relationship. We believe that the
vendors with whom we partner are committed to the same ideals.
The Blackdown project is based entirely on Java product source bases that have
been licensed from Sun Microsystems.
</quote>
The wise choice is first to develop expertise in the original sources from Sun
and the Java Consortium. Then branch out to blackdown.{com,org}, gnu.org and the
rest.
-- TT
