Barton's Blog

Last week, at the end of JavaOne day one, I was able to grab the JRuby dynamic duo for a podcast.  Tom Enebo and Charlie Nutter turned out to be really nice guys, must be their midwestern roots, and were a pleasure to talk to (I also learned a lot :). 

My interview with Tom and Charlie (14:19)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Charlie Nutter and Tom Enebo -- the JRuby dyanmic duo (and wearing the shirts to prove it).

Some of the topics we tackle:

• A historical background, Ruby, then Rails, then JRuby.
• What the guys were doing pre-Sun and how Tim Bray lured them to the fiery orb.
• Three licenses is better than one (GPL, CPL, LGPL)
  
• How JRuby is working with GlassFish and NetBeans.
• The DaVinci machine project, jMaki and what ever happened to AJAX?
  
• Might we see a JPerl?
• Looking to get more involved with MySQL

As promised, after individual presentations at last week's CommunityOne I brought together the community leaders of three of the top GNU/Linux distros (Zonker Brockmeier, OpenSUSE; Jono Bacon, Ubuntu; Karsten Wade, Fedora), threw in Glynn Foster of OpenSolaris and moderated a no-holds-barred panel.  (It took them three hours to clean up the blood afterwards!!)

Although the panel itself wasn't recorded, immediately after it concluded, the five of us headed to the make-shift podcast studio we had set up at the event and recorded the following discussion.  Listen at your peril!

My Discussion with the panel (44:08)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

No glasses? No facial hair? Get in the back.
Zonker Brockmeier, OpenSUSE; Jono Bacon, Ubuntu; Karsten Wade, Fedora;  Glynn Foster (standing), OpenSolaris 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• How the gentlemen balance the needs of the community with the needs of their corporate parent.
• Working with upstream providers.  Is the heat Ubuntu gets on this subject justified? Karsten's mantra (Glynn, a former GNOME director, also offers a perspective from the upstream)
• Shout-outs to Debian
  
• Governance and how each of the distros handles it (the community/corporate split and who picks the members)
• In the last third of the podcast we head off in to the realm of the philosophical and address Free vs. Non-Free software, the "Vocal Minority," Richard Stallman, mini-Stallman's and all things holy.

Last week, on the first day of JavaOne, I was serendipitously able to grab Tom Fitzsimmons, (the owner of Iced Tea) Patrick Macdonald (Tom's boss) and Karsten Wade (community contact for OpenJDK) from Red Hat for a podcast.  We sat down and talked about the journey to get OpenJDK into Fedora that began in earnest last JavaOne.

BTW today just happens to be the launch of Fedora 9.  Congratulations to the whole Fedora community!
 

My Talk with Tom, Patrick and Karsten (23:43)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Patrick, Tom (kneeling) and Karsten -- helping to put the "Open" in Java.
 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• Attacking the "remaining 4%" to get OpenJDK into Fedora ASAP (leveraging GNUClasspath components)
• FOSDEM 2007 -- building bridges with the Sun crew 
  
• Trademark issues and the birth of "IcedTea"(Fitz really did go back to his hotel room and hack rpms last JavaOne after OpenJDK was announced)
• IcedTea -> OpenJDK in Fedora 9.
• OpenJDK now available for RHEL5 and CentOS5 via EPEL and getting it ready to being moved into RHEL5 proper
• NetBeans coming soon to a Fedora 9 update

Right before CommunityOne I caught up with Margaret Lewis, based here in Austin, who is the director of Commercial software at AMD.  We chatted about AMD's support and commitment to OpenSolaris.

My interview with Margaret (9:10)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Some of the topics we tackle:

• AMD's commitment to Open Source.
• How AMD is setting up dedicated software resources in their center in Germany to focus on optimizing AMD's chips for OpenSolaris and how they are putting back all the changes.
  
• AMD's virtualization work with the Xen hypervisor and how that feeds into the work that OpenSolaris has been doing.
• AMD's work with Java and Java tuning.
• AMD's power down feature, "PowerNow!"

Before the OpenSolaris launch I did an interview with Dave Stewart, the head of Intel's "Team Solaris."  Last week I got to meet him in person and snapped the pic below. 

Take a listen to hear what Dave and the team have been up to (they've been busy :).

My interview with Dave (9:06)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

 
Dave at the CommunityOne party, proudly sporting his OpenSolaris Tshirt. 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• Intel's "Team OpenSolaris" in China and the US.
• What Dave thinks are the coolest parts of OpenSolaris.
• Where Intel has made most of its OpenSolaris contributions.
  
• Project Tesla and Intel's effort with PowerTOP for OpenSolaris.
• Whats coming up later this year and how Dave and co. are working to get their next family of chips, Nehalem to work really well with OpenSolaris.

Right before the the OpenSolaris 2008.5 launch I grabbed a few minutes with Tim Cramer who's recently been named the executive liaison to the OpenSolaris community.   In this role, Tim will be looking to strengthen the communication between Sun the corporation and the OpenSolaris community (his day job is Senior director of OpenSolaris core engineering). 

My interview with Tim (11:48)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Tim hoisting a Guinness at the GlassFish party the night before the Solaris launch. 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• Tim's background -- from super computer compilers, to Java performance, to NetBeans, to JavaFX to now.
• Communication as the biggest issue over the past year and how Tim will work to make sure the community is never surprised by anything Sun does.
• Who makes up the community and where Tim's looking to grow this.
• Tim's goals for the next year: growing a healthy community, focusing attention on app developers and growing the repository.

Right before CommunityOne kicked off this Monday and OpenSolaris 2008.05 was launched, I was able to grab Dave Miner for a podcast.  Dave is another one of the big brains behind OpenSolaris and is the architect behind the install team. 

My interview with Dave (9:30)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Dave ready for the big day. 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• The gauntlet people previously had to run to install Solaris
• Dave's involvement with Solaris install from member of the original team in '92 to rejoining and taking over the team a couple of years ago.
  
• How they've streamlined the install process - Project Caiman
  
• Building a LiveCD
• Where Dave wants to take the install over the next year: jumpstart, server focus, distribution constructor project
  

I recently caught up with two of the big brains behind OpenSolaris, Stephen Hahn and David Comay to discuss the launch of OpenSolaris 2008.5 and a lot of the work and thinking that has gone into it.

My interview with Stephen and David (14:07)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Stephen and David toast the launch with their expensive crystal glasses at the OpenSolaris install fest at CommunityOne.

Some of the topics we tackle:

• How to balance attracting new developers with making sure we keep the customers and developers who've traditionally been using Solaris.
  
• Where we've borrowed from and what we've borrowed.
• Stephen drills down on the Image Packaging System (IPS) and explains why we decided to roll our own.
• How IPS compares to apt-get.
  
• The easy conversion of system V packages to IPS.
  
• Where OpenSolaris is heading over the next year

One of the things I really enjoy about JavaOne is getting to meet other Sun employees from around the world whom I've only corresponded with via email or talked to over the phone.  Earlier this week I got to meet Jaroslav "Yarda" Tulach from our NetBeans team in Prague.

I had recently learned that Jaroslav, on his own time, had packaged NetBeans for inclusion in Mandriva 2008.1.   This effort also served as the basis for the work needed to get NetBeans into Ubuntu.  I had planned to blog about this before JavaOne but things got too crazy.  Now I'm able to post the entry and with a picture to boot!

Not only that but at JavaOne I learned from Tom Fitzsimmons of Fedora/RedHat that Jaroslav's work to get NetBeans into Fedora is coming along nicely and should result in NetBeans getting in a update for Fedora 9.  Tres cool!

Jaroslav, this Bud's for you (the real Czech kind not the crappy American brew). 

Here are a few pictures from earlier this week taken at CommunityOne and day one of JavaOne. 

Podcasts a comin'

In the next few days I will also be posting a bunch of podcasts I did while in San Francisco including a bunch from key OpenSolaris folks, a post-Distro-smackdown recording,  an interview with the Fedora IcedTea guys and a chat with the JRuby dudes.

 
Mr. Finch exits -- Before either event even began, the city was crawling with Java topped cabs.

CommunityOne and the Launch of OpenSolaris (this time for real)


Marten Mickos, Neelan Choksi and Ian Murdock hold forth on FOSS business models at RedMonkTwo. 

C1 Speakers: Jono Bacon (Ubuntu), Zonker Brockmeier (OpenSUSE), Mako Hill (FSF), Karsten Wade (Fedora)

Sun Software EVP Rich Green and RedMonk pundit Steveo Grady talk seriously under the disco ball at the OpenSolaris launch party. 

JavaOne - DayOne 

The MySQL Community Crew attend their first JavaOne as Sun employees (and find that that means they don't get the free backpack).  L-R: Jay Pipes, Giuseppe Maxia, Lenz Grimmer and Colin Charles.  

The post-keynote deluge. 

 
If you attend JavaOne you've gotta get your picture taken with Duke (there was a huge line).

Pau for now... 

Tuesday morning at JavaOne, Karsten Wade, RedHat employee, Fedora Board member and Distro Gladiator gave me the great news -- The OpenJDK6 package is now available for RHEL 5 and CentOS 5!

The package was uploaded to the Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository and can be easily added to either RHEL or CentOS (here's how).

Podcast to come

While I was at JavaOne I was able to sit down and do a podcast with Tom Fitzsimmons, Patrick Macdonald who actually worked on the IcedTea project at RedHat and enabled OpenJDK to become a reality.  Look for that early next week.

Pau for now...

Last week, with the release of Ubuntu 8.04LTS, came the debut of the JDK in Ubuntu's Universe repository.  

Universe? So What?

While the JDK had been in Ubuntu's Multiverse before, getting into Universe meant having JDK packages based on OpenJDK6 that were 100% free. This was made possible by the work of a lot of people at Sun and the community (most notably the folks at Fedora cranking on IcedTea).  

The effort to produce the Free implementation started in earnest, as Mark Reinhold points out, last summer when Joe Darcy began creating a Free software "JDK6 code base by removing new features from a clone of the JDK 7 code and then gradually working through the remaining encumbrances and other issues." 

Having a Free implementation of the JDK also opens the doors for packages that depend on a JDK being in Universe, one example being NetBeans, which also made its Universe debut in 8.04LTS. 

Fedora Next

Free Java also means that  Fedora 9 which is due out in a couple of weeks on May 13, will also be able to include an OpenJDK implementation (Fedora, unlike Ubuntu, only accepts Free software).   Specifically, according to Lillian at Red hat's blog, the java-1.6.0-openjdk  package will replace java-1.7.0-icedtea that was in Fedora 8.   Check out the details here on the Fedora wiki.  More hoopla to come on the actual release of Fedora 9.

Mahalo Doko

A huge shout-out to Doko, aka Matthias Klose, the Ubuntu Java ubermensch who did the actual packaging of OpenJDK and then went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that the latest versions of GlassFish and JavaDB made it into 8.04LTS as well.

 
Doko and me in an Edinburgh pub last summer at Debconf7.  I owe him a few more of what he's holding in his hand.

Java in Ubuntu -- A Trip down Memory Lane

The JDK first appeared in Ubuntu two years ago in the 6.06LTS release and was made possible by the DLJ (Distribution License for Java) which made Java technology redistributable.  One release later, the JDK was joined in Multiverse by some of its buddies: GlassFish, NetBeans and JavaDB.  In 7.10, the "Java Stack" while still in Multiverse was made up of rev'd component pieces.  And now with 8.04LTS, NetBeans and the JDK are both in Universe and GlassFish and Java DB have been updated. 

Stay tuned for Intrepid Ibex and see where Java lands next!

*in backport

Want More?

• To literaly hear the details behind this cool event, check out this podcast Rich Sands, Bruno Souza and I did with the Java Posse.
• Check out the press release.
• Gilles joy at OpenJDK in Ubuntu 

Pau for now... 

Last but not least in my series of podcasts from this year's My SQL Conference and Expo, is my conversation with Erica Brescia, CEO of BitRock.  BitRock is the company behind BitNami and InstallBuilder and counts as its clients companies like MySQL, JasperSoft, KnowledgeTree, SugarCRM...

My interview with Erica (9:34)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

 
Erica, still standing and smiling at 9PM. 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• Providing the packaging services of a lot of the commercial Open Source companies like MySQL, JasperSoft, KnowledgeTree, SugarCRM...
• Creating BitNami a site that provides access to easy to access/install stacks of Open Source software for Linux, Window, OS X and Solaris.
• Surviving without venture funding.
  
• What its like running a company thats located in Seville, Spain and how the location draws a lot of great European developers.
• Erica's priorities for the next year: building out the engineering team, getting the word out about BitNami and building a community around it.

Fedora! OpenSuse! Ubuntu! -- Three community managers together on one stage!  And if that wasn't sick enough we're going add in OpenSolaris and one of their board members!

When?! Where?! How Much?!

One day only, Monday May 5 at CommunityOne at the Moscone Center in San Francisco! 

And the price of admission? FREE! FREE! FREE!  Free as in beer, Free as in Freedom, Free as you feel when you're riding your Harley down a twisting mountain rode at midnight listening to death metal and the wind is howling through your hair, like a banshee thats sooooo mad its not even funny!

Meet the Gladiators: 

Fedora	OpenSUSE	Ubuntu	OpenSolaris
Karsten "The Killer" Wade	Zonker "Bring it On" Brockmeier	Jono "No Mercy" Bacon	Glynn "Miles of Smiles " Foster

The Schedule - Monday May 5

These community warriors will each be given an hour to present their side of the story then we'll bring them all together at the end of the day for the first Free and Open Source panel ever to be held in a locked cage! 

No rules, no limits, no problem! 

12:25 - 1:20    Jono Bacon - Community leader Ubuntu Linux!

1:30 - 2:25     Zonker Brockmeier - Community leader OpenSUSE Linux!

2:35 - 3:30     Karsten Wade - Sr. Developer Community Manager!

4:00 - 4:45     Distro Panel: Jono, Zonker, Karsten + Glynn Foster - OpenSolaris Governing Board member, moderated be me!

You'll not want to miss this one!

Pau for  now...

Here is number 5 in my series of six podcasts from last week's MySQL conference and expo.

Just after lunch on Tuesday, I was able to corner Brian Aker, former CTO of MySQL, introduce myself and ask him if he was up for a podcast.  Without any convincing or arm twisting he happily agreed. :)

My interview with Brian (9:18)  Listen (Mp3)   Listen (ogg)

Brian's lenses adapt to match the art around him. 

Some of the topics we tackle:

• Brian's parade of titles and where he's ended up within Sun
• Amazon.com, durable memory, and what that means for EC2
  
• Getting Memcached to run on larger systems
• Getting access to larger hardware in general and being able to address scalability issues first hand
• What OS Brian runs on his laptop
• The coolest thing about MySQL