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Monday April 23, 2007

NetBeans in Ubuntu

Last week we announced the availability of the Java Stack on Ubuntu and one of the coolest parts of this announcement is including NetBeans in Debian native packaging. NetBeans has been available in a standalone Linux installer for many years. What's new now is the integration with the Debian packaging system which can, among other things, automatically pull in dependent packages such as the the NetBeans Platform and the Sun JDK.

During our development of this packaging we discovered some legacy license terms that complicated redistribution. That caused us to create a temporary "installer" workaround that requires users to download the NetBeans IDE tarball prior to installing the Ubuntu packages. The NetBeans legal team went to work and updated the terms and we updated the packaging... but our fixes didn't make the feisty code freeze . You will be glad to know that we do have the fixes in hand and are proceeding to follow the Ubuntu update process that will, in a couple weeks, get the revised packaging into the feisty-updates repository (which is on by default).

The real NetBeans package

1. Start Synaptic by going to: System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager
2. Select the menu: Settings | Repositories
3. Click the Ubuntu Software tab and enable multiverse (screenshot below)
4. Click the Third Party Software tab and click Add... (screenshot below)
5. enter the following APT Line: deb http://download.java.net/ubuntu/ feisty/
6. Click Add Source (and Close)
7. Click Reload (to update the Synaptic with the latest repository information)
8. Add NetBeans as one would add any other package: Search for "NetBeans"
9. Select "netbeans5.5"
10. Click Apply

The Details

1. What is Synaptic and how can I add software to Ubuntu?
   See Synaptic and the Synaptic HOWTO
2. Where can I learn more about Ubuntu Repositories?
   Ubuntu Repositories (see Managing Repositories in Ubuntu)
3. Hey, Synaptic doesn't know about this Tom Marble fellow, can I trust him?
   Only you can determine if you trust me
   You can see other's that have signed my GPG key here.
   If you decide you want to trust me then you can add my GPG key to APT so you don't get the warning in the future.
   Add the package gui-apt-key then run it:
   • Applications | System Tools | APT Key Manager
   • enter Key ID: 0x1EABA9CB
   • click Add
4. Where can I find out more about APT and security?
   See SecureApt
5. Hey, how can I make sure that the Java™ Plug-In works with Firefox?
   Simply add the package sun-java6-plugin
6. This is nice, but I found some other problem... what should I do?
   File a bug! That's how the team will know what works (specifically what doesn't) and we'll fix it. You can file netbeans5.5 packaging bugs on this page.

Thursday April 19, 2007

Build on the Java Stack

Today I'm wearing my Ubuntu shirt because today is the day Feisty Fawn (7.04) has been released and it includes Sun's complete Java stack.

For over a year we have been working aggressively to make our software available on Free Software distributions. It is easy to underestimate the complexity of the challenges involved. Last year when we worked in the DLJ license the Sun business, legal, and engineering teams learned a great deal about rights for distro redistribution and integration.

Since that time we have been busily working on open sourcing the six million lines of code which comprise Sun's implementation of the Java SE Platform as part of the OpenJDK project. The interconnected constraints of software licensing, transitioning our business models, and expanding OpenJDK community are labyrinthine.

Stepping back for just a moment one can understand the significance of Sun following a trajectory towards Free Software. We believe Free Software is an extraordinarily important force in technology innovation and that participating in -- indeed making significant contributions to -- this movement are essential for Sun's business going forward. Our recent visit to Brazil has demonstrated how one country views open source as strategic to government (as well as industry and academia). We are proud to have a Free Software stack that runs on an eco-friendly hardware stack (including the GPL'd UltraSPARC T1). Today's announcement is another point in the arc of making money (and doing good) with Free.

This is an exciting day for me because I'm a big fan of Free Software and impatient to unlock the power of cool projects that can reach new audiences. I couldn't have helped move this project forward if it wasn't for the advice of my friends at Debian, Fedora, Red Hat, Gentoo, OpenSUSE and, of course, Ubuntu. I especially want to thank the director of NetBeans, Jan Chalupa, for embracing this project and driving the repackaging of NetBeans 5.5 and making distro packaging an essential goal for NetBeans 6.0. Today we are talking about our stack in multiverse, but it's important to see that this work is getting us closer to main and thus helps all Free Software distros.

Working together as a Java community we can continue our discussions on modularizing and harmonizing the distribution of runtimes, libraries and applications so that we can package and distribute the enormous wealth of existing Java applications.

Windows platforms have classically had point-and-click software installers. Solaris has had the Java Enterprise System installer. But now we see that Linux software management has caught up (a possibly exceeded?) the other platforms. Ultimately that makes the argument for building applications on top of the Java stack even stronger: they will be easily installable and "just work" everywhere.

People have asked me if this new excitement might lead to adding Java to the "Linux tool chain", or renewed bindings for Java in Gnome or KDE. Each of these ideas is worth exploring in further detail. But what makes me really thrilled is to think that this may be the year that the Linux desktop finally gains traction against Windows. The Linux desktop is fully featured now: I've been running Ubuntu Feisty since January (while under development) and I've found it to be very stable and quite friendly. I especially appreciate the ability to do simple things like suspend my laptop and use WiFi radar while traveling.

Tom meets the Ubuntu Brazil team at FISL (photo courtesy of Tim Boudreau)

Friday April 13, 2007

Sun Free Software in Brazil

Sun's Open Source team is all over Brazil this week at the FISL conference and next week at TechDays. In addition we are having several meetings with developers from industry, academia and government.

The following Sun open source projects are represented:

• OpenJDK
• Mobile & Embedded
• OpenSolaris
• NetBeans
• PostgresQL
• Java DB
• OpenOffice
• GlassFish
• Grizzly