May 8, 2007 - The 12th annual JavaOne conference resumed this week in San Francisco with an emphasis on the "open possibilities" of Java technology. Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of Software, kicked off the General Session by setting the context for the day's announcements. He explained that communication is the vehicle for building communities, and technology, he believes, is a vehicle to accelerate the rate, the richness, and the value of our communications.

Green painted a picture of the anywhere, anytime network as an unstoppable force with Java technology as a driving factor. Not only are mobile phones out-shipping PCs 20 to 1, but last year we witnessed the most rapid growth of Java technology to date with over 6 million developers, over 5.5 billion devices, and 2 billion handsets running Java.

To a packed crowd at the Moscone Center he talked about where Java has been and also about its future. "What we are going to do is talk about how we are going to use Java going forward. How Java has worked in the past, to use technology as a catalyst," said Green.

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Today's Key Announcements

Sun announced that it has released the Java Development Kit (JDK) version for Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) to the OpenJDK Community as free software under the GNU General Public License version two (GPLv2). Over 6.5 million lines of Java SE code have been open sourced under GPL v2. This completes Sun's Open JDK initiative and for Green, "Open equals opportunity."

Sun also announced the Interim Governing Board for the OpenJDK community. The board's charter is to draft and gain ratification of a new constitution for the OpenJDK Community within the next year, with active participation from the membership.

JavaFX, a new family of Java technology-based products was launched to help content providers create and deploy rich Internet applications (RIA). The first two JavaFX releases, JavaFX Script and JavaFX Mobile, were announced on stage. Both products are based on the Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE).

JavaOne attendees were treated to a demo of JavaFX Script, by Sun inventor Chris Oliver, who was joined on stage by James Gosling, widely known as the "father of Java." This new scripting language gives Java developers the power to quickly create content-rich applications for a variety of clients, including mobile devices, set-top boxes, desktops, and Blu-ray discs.

Perhaps the biggest news of the day was JavaFX Mobile, a complete software system for mobile devices. It is allows you to simplify and accelerate the development of a powerful standardized software system that can be leveraged across a wide range of consumer devices. Green described it as "the network in your hand," bringing the power of Java SE down to the mobile environment. In another on-stage demo, Sun's Nadini Ramani demonstrated the rich visual environment this new technology enables.

Green was later joined by Sun's President and CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, who talked about the desire of businesses to connect directly with people and how the internet provides that opportunity, what he called "the epic battle." Jonathan's blog entry today echoes his comments on stage and also includes a picture of a phone running the new JavaFX Mobile technology.

Also announced was a new release of Sun Java Real-Time System 2.0 (Java RTS). This new technology combines the power and scalability of the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) with the flexibility of the Java platform to address a growing demand for predictable computing in industries such as aerospace, financial services, and scientific research.

For developers who want to use Ruby on Rails with their existing Java code, Sun announced a preview release of the NetBeans 6 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which includes dynamic scripting with Java, JRuby 1.0, and Javascript. Other features of the latest release include improved code editing, inspection and navigation capabilities, local history, integrated support for Subversion, and extensive profiling features integrated into the standard distribution.

In other news, Green said Java on the server is stronger than ever. He announced that Glassfish V2 now includes scripting support for JRuby and is available on Solaris, Windows, Linux and OS X. Green described Glassfish V2 as an enterprise-ready application server and said, "It is the community, it is the source code, it is the reference, and it is the product all in one. Open Source works to build great products."

JavaOne continues through Friday, May 11. John Gage, Sun's chief science officer, urged the engineers and developers in the audience to "not be shy," but to spend the next 81 hours sharing ideas, exchanging business cards, and networking at the conference. With over 250 conference sessions, 117 Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, and 15 Hands-on-Labs there should be ample opportunity to do just that.