http://linux.sys-con.com/ Latest articles from Bill Roth Copyright 2008 LINUX Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:41:00 GMT LINUX 10 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://linux.sys-con.com/read/427698.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/427698.htm Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:45:00 GMT Alfred Chuang started out by talking about his core believe that we are on the cusp of fundamental change, with the advent of iPods, Web 2.0, and social networks. He started with a discussion of Mashups, and talked about how most of them are consumer facing. He then said 'The era of innovation in packaged applications is over.' He then called out the key needs he has seen recently from customers. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/428980.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/428980.htm Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:15:00 GMT One of the more annoying aspects of Web 2.0, etc., is the injection of neologisms, protologisms, or just plan made up words. In fact, I do not think that I have heard a talk from my friends Jay Simons or David Meyer in the last year that has not included a protologism. (I like the word protologism better, since it indicates something not quite finished, completed, or even valid). This include words like 'folksonomy'. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/407403.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/407403.htm Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:30:00 GMT Now for the obvious question. Why is all this abstruse research relevant to business? To answer that, you have to go back to first principles. What is enterprise software all about? Automation. Taking people out of the loop. Improving cycle time. Improving responsiveness. So what good is semantics? Consider a workflow in a business. There are a series of steps in the workflow in which some of the steps are done by computers, and some of them are one by people. Most often, the ones done by people, are because some inference or decision has to be made on the incoming document or data. If we begin to augment the information on the web, more of the decisions, and more of the inference-ing, can be done by computers. This will lead to faster overall completion of workflow, by removing the off-line human element, where possible. This results in saving money and greater productivity, and this is why 'semantics' is important to business. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/370476.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/370476.htm Mon, 21 May 2007 18:30:00 GMT TheServerSide and BEA have come together to offer TSS readers BEA Workshop Studio 3.3, normally $899 USD, for $99 USD until May 31, 2007. This is part of what will become integrated with Workshop for WebLogic 10 (announced yesterday on TSS), and contains many of the same features. The upgrade to 10.1 Studio is included for this price, so if you purchase 3.3 now, you'll be able to upgrade. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/373068.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/373068.htm Wed, 09 May 2007 21:15:00 GMT JavaOne never ceases to amaze me. Year after year, I expect the show to be a flop. This year is no exception. I am wrong again this year. In my cab ride from my hotel in the Theatre District, I can see hundreds of attendees (obviously developers) trekking their way through the Tenderloin, across Market and Mission to Moscone. With their wheeled-backpacks in tow, the mirthless programmers, mostly male, trudge toward the 12th JavaOne. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/365597.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/365597.htm Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:30:00 GMT Last year, I took a stab at predictions as to what Sun would announce at the 11th annual JavaOne. This year, for JavaOne 2007, I'll take a stab at what Sun and some of the other major vendors will announce. It will be fairly easy to predict the major themes from the vendors. Most of them will be spouting 'Web 2.0' and talking about development and production assistance for mashups, etc. In addition to new tools, some chatter about PHP, and a talk by Gary Horen, we're flexible enough such that I am sure we'll have some last minute excitement. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/308366.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/308366.htm Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:15:00 GMT We need your help. My team is trying to understand the demand for AJAX, in all its forms. Could you take a few minutes and answer a short survey? We're also offering an incentive. By taking the survey, you will have a chance to receive a $100 Amazon gift certificate. (BEA employees are not eligible). http://linux.sys-con.com/read/306376.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/306376.htm Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:30:00 GMT In this post, I will be recounting my experience with Ubuntu server 6.10, WebLogic Workshop 9.2, and REST. Note: This in no way implies support of any kind from me or BEA. This is just the personal experiences of someone who can not keep his hands off the keyboard. This also gave me an opportunity to code up some REST samples, since many customer I come in contact with ask about it. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/314106.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/314106.htm Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:15:00 GMT Day one of BEA World started out with the usual fanfare at a packed hall, and our Liquid Thinking video in Chinese. The master of ceremonies was Sichen Yu, one of the key technical people in China. Marcus Tsoi, the General Manager of our China business then kicked the day off by welcoming and thinking out sponsors. He then introduced Steve Au Yeung, who runs the entire APAC region for us. Steve talked about the growth in several countries in APAC, not just China, including India and others http://linux.sys-con.com/read/313592.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/313592.htm Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:15:00 GMT Java 6 is has been announced on Monday. While not really a blockbuster release, it has some useful features. First, XML processing, via JAXP and JAXB are now standard. I believe that Sun is also removing some APIs for the first time. In addition, the inclusion of JSR 269 standardizes the annotation processing API, which is a validation of the metadata-driven application development model that BEA introduced to the world in 7.0. The toolable, declarative programming models for EJB, Web Services, and Pageflows, introduced by BEA, morphed into JSR 175 format in Java 1.5 SE, was quickly adopted by EE level JSRs like 181 and 220. Now the processing API for compilation has been standardized in Java 6. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/291761.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/291761.htm Sun, 29 Oct 2006 12:30:00 GMT A week ago, I attempted some predictions on what Oracle would announce at OOW. I would like to review how I did. But first a few general comments. First off, what a boring conference! Not a log of news, except for Linux, and everyone including me knew it was coming. Also, from what I have heard, there was not alog of excitement in the air for the show. Too bad for Larry. Now onto a scorecard of how I did with my predictions. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/289633.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/289633.htm Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:30:00 GMT Latest update I have is that Oracle will make its Linux announcement on Wednesday in Larry's Keynote. He'll call it 'Unbreakable Linux'. Now how they will position it as non-competitive when it takes revenue away from RH remains to be seen. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/288872.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/288872.htm Tue, 24 Oct 2006 07:45:00 GMT Oracle OpenWorld is this week, so expect an avalanche of announcements by the company about their various efforts. OK, so the title is misleading. I admit I do not *actually* know what Oracle is going to announce, but it is not hard to figure out what's coming. Here's my top 10 list of likely Oracle announcements. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/282184.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/282184.htm Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:45:00 GMT It is the day before BEA World Prague, and it seems like a good time to revisit what BEA's position on open source is. As I travel across the globe, I have been describing our position to developers, and they instinctively understand it. I wanted to write it down, in order to be able to refer to it. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/245319.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/245319.htm Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:15:00 GMT BEA has a broad ranging AJAX strategy. It extends across our tooling, server and portal product lines. In general, BEA views AJAX as a nascent technology, but are keen to deliver users the ability to build and use applications with AJAX attributes. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/253050.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/253050.htm Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:30:00 GMT I work in Building 2 on the 4th floor of BEA's Corporate offices. I had moved into a new office, when I noticed a box of CDs on the filing cabinet near my office... http://linux.sys-con.com/read/223745.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/223745.htm Wed, 17 May 2006 13:45:00 GMT It's Day Two of JavaOne and I am covering the Oracle Keynote to see how they spin their Fusion vision today. Preparations for our Keynote are going well and we're getting good visibility . The keynote started out with an obilgatory corporate video, with the tag line 'Start in the Middle'. John Gage came up and did his usual MC routine, pointing out that there are 56 hours left, and his usual poll of the audience. He expressed fascination with an afternoon session with concurrency and double-ended queues. Gage then exhorted folks to go see the the slot-care racing demo, which is an example of real-time Java, i.e. deterministic Java. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/223048.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/223048.htm Tue, 16 May 2006 15:30:00 GMT John Gage did his usual MC, routine. Then Jonathan Schwartz came on stage, and started off by somewhat inexplicably offered a download of hardware, the new Niagra boxes. He then brought Ed Zander on stage, who was in town for the Gartner symposium. Ed was the former COO of Sun, and current CEO of Motorola. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/214645.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/214645.htm Mon, 01 May 2006 14:15:00 GMT Back in the day, the real decision on what to announce during JavaOne didn't really happen until the week before the show. (They could use it as a forum to announce their new CEO, but I will stay away from that one.) However, if I had to bet on what Sun will announce, I would put my money on them trying copy the work we are doing (again) - this time on Blended. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/182122.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/182122.htm Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:30:00 GMT It is rumored on a couple of news sites that Oracle is buying JBoss. If this is true, it is an exciting opportunity for BEA. Oracle would, IMHO, kill JBoss, whether through malice or benign neglect. Not many people realize that with the acquisition of M7, BEA now has a development tool product which can deploy applications to many other open source application servers like JBoss and true open source, open community containers like Apache Tomcat. This presents those developers that have to work in this blended environment that mixes open source and commercial technologies with a migration path from JBoss to any of the other platforms BEA Workshop supports, like WebLogic Server, WebSphere, Tomcat, or Resin. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/48032.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/48032.htm Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT The concept of a service-oriented architecture is a powerful tool for simplifying enterprise integration. Following the three principles of modularity, encapsulation and loose coupling will achieve some amount of improvement for an individual service. It is insufficient to have a loose set of principles to guide enterprise architecture designs. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/46699.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/46699.htm Sat, 09 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT 'With the advent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Induce act, the technical community can no longer be uninvolved,' says Jeff 'Hemos' Bates, vice president of editorial operations and executive editor of Slashdot.org. 'Part of the reasons that the DMCA was passed is that people were not involved,' Bates added. The solution: Slashdot.org now has a political site, http://politics.slashdot.org, taglined 'Politics for Nerds. Your Vote Matters.' http://linux.sys-con.com/read/46198.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/46198.htm Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT On June 30, IBM and two U.S. senators announced the initial deployment of a system to link local Mississippi law enforcement agencies to a single database of public safety information. The federally funded project will deliver public safety information across Mississippi to the desktop and a range of mobile devices. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45855.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45855.htm Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT IBM and the Apache Foundation announced that IBM is contributing the Cloudscape product it acquired from Informix to the Apache open source program. The project name for the effort will be 'Derby.' The contribution amounts to more than 500,000 lines of Java code. In related news IBM also clarified its Linux distribution strategy. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45813.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45813.htm Wed, 04 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT Orbitz's CTO Chris Hjelms and Red Hat's CEO Matthew Szulik between them provided an adrenalin injection for the Linux faithful - and food for thought for the naysayers - when they delivered the opening keynote at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo yesterday here in San Francisco. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45776.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45776.htm Tue, 03 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT While the big market share gainers in 2003 were not IBM and BEA, but Oracle and JBoss, both of which bucked the deflationary trend in the enterprise software market, BEA has been pointing out in the run-up to LinuxWorld Conference & Expo today that it was named the leader in application servers on Linux in terms of license revenue and maintenance fees for the third year running in the recent IDC report. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45777.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45777.htm Tue, 03 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT The so-called 'Beehive' and 'Pollinate' projects will be riding the next wave of Open Source innovation, if things go according to plan for BEA's scheme to release the source code for a large portion of its application development framework for WebLogic Workshop. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45715.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45715.htm Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT Democrats are taking full advantage of Linux and open source software (OSS) in their bid to win the White House in 2004. Leveraging the successful e-campaign strategies pioneered by Howard Dean during the primary season, all of the democratic candidates embraced Linux and OSS in some fashion. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45524.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45524.htm Fri, 02 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT A Mississippi-based project involving IBM and Novell's SUSE LINUX underlines the growing importance of Linux in the government sector. The State of Mississippi Automated System Project (ASP) will provide local officials with real-time access to public safety information including mug shots, arrest warrants, criminal intelligence, hazardous materials data and medical emergency protocols enhancing their ability to prevent and respond to incidents that pose a danger to the public. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45454.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45454.htm Wed, 30 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT Scott McNealy held court yesterday at JavaOne, giving a keynote presentation in which he was more subdued than usual, but which covered every issue from Sun's hardware and software offerings to its position on open source. JDJ editorial board member Bill Roth was there to record his impressions first-hand. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45437.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45437.htm Tue, 29 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT With demo after demo designed to dispel the notion that Java is not performant and a host of announcements concerning everything from the open-sourcing of Java 3D to the new versioning system for the Java platform, Sun's top executives opened the 9th annual JavaOne yesterday with all guns blazing. Here JDJ editorial board member Bill Roth takes a close-up and personal look at what was said at the opening General Session. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45258.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45258.htm Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT Linux is taking the world of Java application servers by storm. Recently, Sun Microsystems hosted an event to tout the adoption of the latest version of the enterprise Java platform, known as Java 2 platform, Enterprise Edition, or simply J2EE 1.4. At this event, many of the application server vendors were present. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/45079.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/45079.htm Thu, 03 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT We know from the theory of relativity that the passage of time is relative to the perceiver. This is true of history as well. Sometimes history moves fast, e.g., during World War II and when communism was crumbling in 1989. Sometimes history moves slowly, as in the Cold War and the period between 1991-2001. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/44681.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/44681.htm Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 GMT Linux is making huge gains as the platform of choice for developing and deploying enterprise Java applications. Sun has seen more than 1 million downloads of the Linux version of its latest application server release, and all application server vendors uniformly agree that Linux is a fast growing platform. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/37967.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/37967.htm Wed, 25 Feb 2004 00:00:00 GMT This talk will review the evolution of the J2EE platform, and discuss its future, with an emphasis on crucial issues to be addressed in order to avoid the looming disaster of fragmentation. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/37607.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/37607.htm Tue, 01 Jul 2003 00:00:00 GMT JavaOne always provides plenty of food for thought. JavaOne 2003 was no exception. This year, Alan Williamson, our beloved editor-in-chief, organized a 'birds-of-a-feather' session for the JDJ editorial board. This is quite an auspicious bunch, and this session provided an opportunity for us to meet face-to-face for the first time. http://linux.sys-con.com/read/37293.htmhttp://linux.sys-con.com/read/37293.htm Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT Back in the beginning of October, I was dragged into the middle of a raging e-mail argument. The argument was whether J2EE was a success, and if it was too complicated. This was like waving a red cape in front of a Spanish bull. I felt then, as I feel now, compelled to respond.