General Session happings – Part 2

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NetBeans 6 was the next victim of the marketing round. Rich announced that the OpenJDK release is completed today! Awesome – this rocks. We got a full open source Java system now. NetBeans is enabled for contributions. The interim governing board for the OpenJDK was announced and is starting with the creating a of a constitution and holding elections. They will also take care of the TCK issue. The standalone TCK will be available to the community. So here go. Sun talked about open sourcing Java and now its done. Now the challenges and opportunities really start. Faster, faster, faster is a new motto for the upcoming JDK. That motto is meant for performance, but it could easily also be meant for getting java packages out there on Linux and more.


On to another topic starting with „But wouldnt it be cool if…“. Sun is announcing JavaFX for consumer focused Java technologies for high impact consumer markets all based on Java SE (all marketing bla). A new language JavaFX Script is announced as a scripting langauge for rich internet applications with a roadmap including authoring tools designed for content professsinals. It leverages Java’s unmatched reach, stability and security. Now James Gosling coming on stage together with Chris Oliver. I think it is dawning on me. JavaFX script is F3 rebranded. Yeah.. it is true. This is awesome. Good thing I prebooked the lab for F3. There is a plan to create a complete line of content creation tools based on this. I guess Java is finally taking the challenge from Flash/Flex and the MS WFwhatever. This is going to kick ass. With a bit of luck and support from the OS community this could mean another big step for Java into the desktop and rich internet application space.

Taking one more step is JavaFX Mobile bringing the power of java software system to a mobile device. It is meant to be a completely open mobile platform. Nice – another contender against iPhone, OpenMoko and the established players. You might have to skip those plans to get that iPhone. This looks good. It will allow you to install and run your own Java apps.

Next Marco Boerries from Yahoo! shows Yahoo!Go meant to move the 500 millions to the mobile phones. They are also about bringing more and more features to the users in an open manner. This might just work. The demo of this working with JavaFX script looked pretty sweet.

Next up is Jonathan Schwartz on stage congratulating Rich on his good work with the community in the first year. After some motivational stuff he brings Djibril Diallo from the UN office for Sport for development and peace on stage. They talk about making the world a better place for kids, women and the rest ;-). Sun helped with the Youthsummit and wants to work on bringing an organistation „Engineers Without Borders“ to reality. Good idea, but pulling that off will be a lot of work. We will see.

Next Jonathan brings Jonathan McNealy on stage. He is happy that Sun now has their own Steve Jobs with Rich Green doing the keynote. He goes on to talk about Curriki.org. Sun is all behind eliminating the digital divide. Not that eliminiation it is a realistic goal, but at least they want to work towards narrowing the gap rather than widening it.

Then the keynotes kind of trickle away with a last message of „Get Involved, Innovate and Contribute“ as a send away message from Rich. Off to the Ubunut paacking session…