Originally posted by: Sunner
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I'll believe it when I see it.
Same here.
Ditto.
So far Sun doesn't seem to "get" the whole open source/free software stuff. And you'd think they would be the company that would be the most whilling, given their history.
But so far their idea of a commercial linux OS is to take Gnome 2.0, put some java crap on it, some extra stuff like Real audio/video streaming software, and slap a bunch of gotchas and liscencing restrictions on it.
Although I did buy the Star Office, and used a Live CD version of Sun's Java desktop (free with a magazine), just to see how it works, and that thing is f-ing FAST. Soffice7 seemed very fast, much faster then Org. Maybe as fast as MS's applications.
It was pretty ugly, but that doesn't matter so much. Once you get that java runtime loaded up into your ram its as fast and as stable as anything out there.
Stuff like that makes me think that Gui user interfaces should never be coded in a low-level langauge. They should be front ends for fast C tools, programs, and libraries, but never be coded in C themselves. To me C++ sucks, and C is inflexible, but..
Now what Sun should REALY do is open up Java. I don't care if they remain in tight control over the specifications. Java needs to be protected against MS's embrace and extend BS, but by making it something like X11 specifications it could work out pretty well. Or maybe like QT, do something like make it free completely for non-commercial use, but for commercial use it has to pass basic compliance/comptability tests to get Sun's liscence to distribute it commercially.
Otherwise stuff like Mono/.Net is going to fill the gap, which in itself isn't bad.. But look at how many people already know and are comfortable with Java! Sun is dropping the ball with keeping tight control over stuff like that.
Look at apps like Azureus. That thing is amazing for a bittorrent client, and it is certianly fast enough for today's computers. It's well done and it hasn't crashed or complained about anything yet. Cross platform, portable, fast, stable. (as far as I can tell).
Sun has great programmers and great software technology, but at the rate they are going they are just going to end up a has-been like SCO.