It's time for another update on the various GlassFish releases roadmaps. Harpreet Singh has just posted a updated draft schedule for GlassFish v2.1, the next major public release of the v2 branch (as of this writing, the current public release is v2ur2).

While GlassFish v2.1 is scheduled to ship in its final version in December, the team is also working on the v3 branch and will actually ship the v3 prelude release (Roadmap) in a couple of months (we just passed code freeze).

Let's not forget to mention the "patch" releases for customers with a GlassFish subscription. GlassFish 2ur2 Patch 2 is the latest release there. You can follow these releases tailored for production usage on the GlassFishForBusiness. Finally, Sailfin V1 alpha shipped recently. This version is aligned with v2.1 mentioned at the beginning of this note.

The feature freeze for GlassFish Server v3 Prelude was yesterday, see Abhijit's post: MarkMail, GF Archive. Clock is ticking... More info under GlassFish+v3. And, yes, we are being this transparent on our scheduling and features!

NetBeans 6.5 beta is now available. The download page is a good place to get a first glimpse at the new features: JavaScript, Groovy, PHP, and more Java. The New and noteworthy document is another detailed resource (note that Milestone 2 = Beta). GlassFish v3 "Prelude" (what is "v3 Prelude"?) is included in the "Java Build" (124 MB) but also in the "Ruby" build (38 MB). In addition, these two quite self-explanatory features have been added: "Deploy-on-Change", "Compile-on-Save".

Both NetBeans and GlassFish are moving into being much larger than Java, the language.
Full roadmap for this NetBeans 6.5 release is here.

Wikipedia defines a Musical Prelude as: The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work. Abhjit just announced that the next step in our road to GlassFish v3 is GlassFish v3 Prelude (announcement, Plan, Content). The above definition fits it well: it will stand on its own and it will introduce the full fledged GFv3 release. You can also think of "Prelude" as a beefed-up "Express" (as in Open SSO Express).

Stay tuned for more details on GFv3 Prelude as it progresses. And Sign up for FishCAT if you are interested in helping improve its quality.