I am a strong believer that Competition is Good for Customers, and this week's CES Show was another reminder; some examples from there:

• Palm Pre - This seems one of the best of the iPhone challengers - looks like a good OS, multi-tasking/touch, physics, nice design and a keyboard. See homepage, wikipedia, Gizmodo and PCWorld. • Sony Vaio P - This one looks like a nice netbook, with a wide screen, build around a good sized keyboard. The use of a trackpoint means the whole thing can be sized just for the keyboard - would love to try it out. Competition for the "lesser" netbooks and the always rumored iPod tablet? See Gizmodo, Engadget. • Dell Adiamo - This one (if the promise matches the buzz) would compete with MacBook Air; if it keeps with Dell's pricepoints, it would help with the pricing. See Gizmodo and Engdget. • Windows 7 - This one, I hope will help keep Apple focused in doing a good job with MacOS. Ubuntu and, I'd hope soon, OpenSolaris, can help with the pressure, but I've felt that the quality of the desktop offerings from Apple has decreased since the iPod/iPhone started generating so much money, and they can use a strong competidor. See homepage and Gizmodo.

Now, back to our usual topics, helping you by providing our own competition :-)

NetBeans and Eclipse both support the GlassFish Server (see other posts at TA: NetBeans and Eclipse). Sun is more invested in NB and the support there has been traditionally better (e.g. see Adam's note) but the Eclipse support is improving too. Markus reports on two simple ways to Speed-up Deployments into GlassFish from Eclipse. The first involves a workaround using asadmin deploydir to do directory deployment. The other involves selectively turning off Anti-Virus checking. In his case, the combination sped up deployment by 40%.

BTW, Markus had an earlier post worth checking out: GlassFish v2 on Debian or Ubuntu.

Hardy Heron is the code name for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Announcement, CNet Article). LTS stands for Long-Term Support: which means supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. Hardy Heron goes out in 2 days and GlassFish v2 is part of the release - check out the GF Package Entry, the Release Schedule, and, for the impatient and brave souls, the Release Candidate.

The Ubuntu repositories (MultiVerse) today have GlassFish v1 (@feisty, @gutsy) so a simple apt-get on(for example) Gusty Gibon will get GFv1, but... Installing GFv2 is quite easy - check the notes from Rob (Plain Install) and Jasper (Extra Administration Details). And, yes, we are working on updating the repositories.

Ken started a series of blogs on how to Set up Sun's Web Stack on Ubuntu and his latest entry explains How to Install GlassFish.

Earlier entries have explained how to install VMWare and Sun Web Server.

Portland is hosting two Open Source events next week: Ubuntu Live and OSCON. Although we did not submit a session on GlassFish (GF v2 fcs is around the corner), there are many good sessions and GlassFish and jMaki are represented in the show floor.

Check out Ken's overview of the week's pods and parties and Arun's exhaustive list of OSS sessions by our friends and relatives. And my presonal recommendation to the sessions by Mark on OpenJDK and by Ian on Project Indiana.

Your GlassFish v1 is now just one apt-get away from your Dell computer! Following on the Initial Announcement , today Dell announced that Feisty Fawn is now Now Available on three of their consumer computers!

I want to join Barton and many in congratulating Dell and Ubuntu

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) is now available. This release includes GlassFish v1 as well as NetBeans 5.5, Java DB (Derby) and Java SE 6. This is a big milestone for all these technologies and, from the GlassFish community, our deep thanks to everybody involved!

The release is being received very enthusiastically. Here are some useful links:

•  Harpreet provides Installation Steps, package information and Trivia on the effort.
•  Mark's Announcement and Sun Press Release.
•  SlashDot
•  Luna Park review
•  Linux Planet, eWeek, Eclipse Developers Journal, Information Week...
•  News... via Yahoo and via Google.
•  News in Italy, Israel, Rusia, Spain (1, 2), Colombia, Brazil, Croatia, France...
•  Bloggers [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]

The Ubuntu release will be discussed in GlasssFish Day as part of CommunityOne. Attendance is free but limited and you need to register.

A quick follow-up to our Previous Report: Canonical has announced that it will bundle GlassFish in its distributions. Check this CNet News piece. This is very good news; we hope to see additional bundling opportunities in the future...

Harpreet is an Ubuntu Fan, and Rick Also Likes Ubuntu. Since next week is Ubuntu Developer's Summit, Harpreet decided to do a more careful check on the status on GlassFish on Ubuntu. The result is that it already passes almost all tests - Check his Blog.

I know that Harpreet and a few other members of the GF community are going to the Summit, so we will report any new developments from there.