Ken Jacobs (Dr. DBA) has Announced Plugin 1.0.4. This release has significant performance improvements, including a number of key 3rd Party Contributions. Reactions from the community so far seem very positive ([1], [2]). Hopefully this is good news for everybody out there reading tea-leaves on how Oracle will treat its not-yet-there new projects.

Two pieces of new of interest to people tracking Oracle and the Sun Acquisition: • Sun's Shareholders Approve the Merger (but still pending regulators approval). • Changes in the Leaderhip of Software Development at Oracle. BTW, I've started posting short posts of this ilk at Twitter.

Added - After the post I realized it might be useful to add some more background on Thomas Kurian, so...

• JavaOne 2006: General Session, day 2 (podcast 1, podcast 2)
• JavaOne 2007: General Session, day 2 (video 1, video 2)
• JavaOne 2008: General Session, day 2 (video 1, video 2).
• Oracle World 2007, Keynote (Keynote)
• Biography at Oracle

Several pieces of good news on Sun's OpenStorage products. Earlier this week the product line was refreshed, both the 7110 and the 7210 offerings. At the same time the SS7000 Simulator has been updated and is now available as an OVF format and can run on the latest VirtualBox (2.2.2). Overall, the product line is doing very well and is the "fastest ramping new product in Sun's storage portfolio ever". Check the Product WebSite for more resources and links.

OpenStorage is an example of the benefits of a Systems Approach to products that leverages both hardware and software, and, on that general topic, check out this Interview with Larry Ellison (available from Oracle.com/sun).

Oracle to Buy Sun Sun and Oracle today announced a definitive agreement for Oracle to acquire Sun for $9.50 per share in cash. The Sun Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close this summer. More.

Oracle Buys Sun On April 20, 2009, Oracle announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems (Sun). The proposed transaction is subject to Sun stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual. Learn More

A compilation of today's news of interest:

I was "on vacation" last week, so the news are a bit late, but the news on July 1st confirmed the rumor: Oracle WebLogic Server is Oracle's "Strategic AppServer" - see the articles at The Register and InfoWorld. This comes on top of recent surveys on Oracle/BEA usage: SOA-Talk and The Register.

A consequence of this move is that Metro is now used Oracle's main AppServer, increasing the adoption of GlassFish's WebServices stack. The same applies to JAXB RI; and, in that case, I know of no mainstream AppServer that uses a different implementation!

TheRegister reports on an Oracle License Increase on their major products, including AppServer and Databases; Barron's has a Similar Report, and so does SearchITChannel.com. The reports also suggest that the entry-level WebLogic Express is no more. It seems to me that the GlassFish Enterprise Server and MySQL Enterprise Server just became even better deals than before. If interested, check out our Informal Adoption Stories, the Switch Program, and the GlassFish For Business.

NB. The title refers to a scene from Galaxy Quest (check the Script). Complaints about my sense of humor to /dev/null :-).

Two new GlassFish-related sessions for CommunityOne:

• OpenMQ at Wotif (Greg Luck) - The #2 e-tailer in Australia depends on OpenMQ. • EclipseLink in Glassfish (Doug Clarke & Shaun Smith) - Enterprise-Ready JPA in GFv3.

CommunityOne is free but space is limited; register early.

• Sun and MySQL Welcome Aboard!, Reactions, More Reactions • Access Control - ANYONE Access, Policy Project, Usng OpenSSO • Web Services - Maven Plug-in, Jersey 0.5, Tango in Chinese • Oracle & BEA - Oracle and BEA • Admin and Mangerment - VisualVM • Communiy - Paul Sterk, GF @ Hyderabad • Adoption - Heard on the Web • Misc - Migrate!, SailFin and NB 6.1

It took a bit (see the Original News back in October 06) but this time Oracle got through (NYTimes Article). Like last time (Original Thread) there are several threads at TheServerSide covering the topic: Rod Johnson on Oracle/BEA and Oracle set to buy BEA for $8.5B. And, like last time, the threads have multiple positive references to GlassFish.

There are plenty of News articles covering the acquisition. And, since that day was also that of MySQL joining Sun, many of the pieces cover both, and some compare and contrast the two.

Breaking News: • Oracle Announces Intent to Acquire BEA.   Good news for GlassFish... Also see Discussion at TSS.