Sun Tech Days 2009

The conference is over. I would like to sum up some results. Perhaps I will not smear, just go over the points. Five things to note.

Javafx

The keynote of the client technology section. JavaFX is a platform for developing RIA, rich Internet applications. Competitor Adobe Flash and Microsoft SilverLight.
The platform is raw, slow (all speakers avoided the issue of performance), but its potential is huge. What is worth at least the fact that javafx can work with java classes, i.e. all the features that java has are in fx. She inherited, of course, the formula "Once written, it works everywhere." It is assumed that on any device where you can run the java-machine, fx will work one day.
I will not paint in more detail, this is a topic for a separate post. Obviously, if nothing breaks, we will hear about JavaFX in the near future no less than now about Java.
Examples of applications can be found here . I do not advise people with weak iron to go there, so as not to spoil the impression of the platform.

Cloud computing

It seems that only the lazy now does not speak and write about cloud computing. At the conference, this topic was presented by a stand with two Americans (one of whom was of French descent) who were very asking to take their word for it (miracles on their monitors did not look very convincing, because there was nothing spectacular in the clouds). At lunchtime on the second day there was an impromptu report initiated by one of the domestic developers, whose name I, unfortunately, did not remember. They told a lot of interesting things. Sun is actively developing the theme of SaaS and everything else that relates to cloud computing, but so far all the results are inside the corporate network and are not available to mere mortals.

Sunspot

An expensive, insanely tasty, but, in my opinion, useless toy. A controller with a couple of dozens of sensors (including an ambient light sensor and an accelerometer) on which the java machine is spinning (accordingly, it can be programmed in Java ME). In addition to sensors, the thing has something like a wi-fi adapter (data is transmitted according to a standard very similar to the wi-fi standard) and some other joys. Spots can communicate with each other, which is actively used by developers: one controller is hung on a robot, another is controlled. Thus attracted gullible visitors to the stands.
For educational institutions, a developer kit (two spots + manuals) costs $ 400, for all the rest 600.

Opensolaris

He seems to have been promoted most actively. LiveCDs were scattered everywhere, an installation fest took place, even a separate section was highlighted. It was interesting to listen not so much about Solaris itself, but about the charms that come with it: the ZFS file system and a miracle for those who want to know everything - DTrace. But, strangely enough, I noticed the lived-in Solaris only at two speakers, the rest shone with ubuntu and Windows. He made conclusions, I’m not in a hurry with experiments yet.

Blackbox (Sun MD s20)

“An energy-efficient data center with super-dense component placement.” A standard transport container, in which fish are usually transported, stuffed with eight standard 19-inch server racks, a cooling system and other necessary things. Very convenient: the company can place a data center right in the parking lot in front of the office. Or, for example, hide a copy of the Internet in such a container . The advantages of black boxing are obvious: mobility, environmental friendliness, low cost.
The warranty, according to the leaflet, is 1 year.

A lot of different things happened at this conference, it still has not drowned in one’s head. And a plenary report by Jeet Cole (the most important Java in the whole world), and beer with sausages. Of course, there were jambs, but in general it was organized very, very well. Thanks to San for these three days.

Yes, one more thing. When asked about the refusal to sell IBM responded as follows: "Sun refuses to comment on rumors."