∞ /notes/it-all-rocks | 2007-10-30 | mac java eclipse

It all rocks!

The release of Leopard caused a little journey of thoughts around Java and Eclipse on the Mac for me, and I come to two pleasant conclusions: Leopard rocks, and alternatives rock, too. I guess the situation after the Leopard release was really a moment that acted as a catalyst for change. The lack of Java 6 and the fact that the Mac SWT is based on the deprecated Carbon API made the Mac seem like a non-optimal platform for Java development, although the new Java is much faster than the previous one, with noticeably improved application startup times. Then, basically within a few days, both a Java 6 port to Mac OS and a Cocoa implementation of SWT have been started and made running. This is awesome! And I found a way around the classloader issues I had with our project setup.

And that's only a few days after coming to the conclusion that the recent Ubuntu is actually a wonderful alternative for all the stuff I need for work, with a nice modern UI, complete hardware support without a single tweak (on my original MacBook) and great Java and Eclipse support. So now I have both: An awesome alternative free OS which is a great basis for work stuff, giving me a relaxed feeling of non-vendor-lock-in, independence and reliability as well as everything I need right now on my favourite OS with all that awesome stuff Leopard brings along, in particular Time Machine (which really changed my feeling toward my computer a lot, like, I started using Stickies again... lately, the only thing I really trusted was the versioned stuff in my Eclipse workspace), plus a real perspective with a Cocoa SWT and a FOSS Java 6 port.

So all this recent Java and Eclipse stuff really rocks, and I haven't even mentioned Google's awesome new Java (all that's blue) mobile application framework called 'Android', with its Eclipse-integrated SDK, which will establish Java (and this is the Apache-licensed Harmony Java!) in an amazingly important market area, independent of any particular company, as it happened in other areas before (like different application servers or Eclipse). With both GPL and non-GPL-but-FOSS alternatives Java really seems to become ubiquitous, be it on the server, for mobile devices or cross-platform desktop applications, be it for free or for proprietary software, and be it as a language or as a platform for new languages.