Red Hat enhances PaaS OpenShift by JRuby developers

Earlier this month, there was news that Red Hat opened the code for its PaaS OpenShift . Those who follow the development of this project have probably already noticed that Red Hat is paying a lot of attention to OpenShift. In addition to adding new functionality (from recent support for Node.js ), an improvement of the existing one is constantly happening. The latter can be attributed to the news of the transition to Red Hat two key developers JRuby.

Red Hat reported that it hired Charles Nutter and Thomas Enebo, two key JRuby developers who once worked at Sun Microsystems. They joined the company to expand their work on Immutant , TorqueBox , JRuby , OpenJDK and languages ​​for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). And, according to Charles Nutter, it was the ability to actively participate in the development of OpenJDK that influenced his decision to move to Red Hat.

Red Hat was one of the first companies to support the OpenJDK project launched by Sun. Red Hat has signed the OpenJDK Community TCK License Agreement to access the Java Compatibility Kit and continues to actively participate in the project.
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Nutter and Enebo go to Red Hat from Engine Yard , the company where they worked after Sun and is developing their own PaaS platform. These developers have earned respect for JRuby's expertise and excellent programming skills. Their transition to Red Hat confirms the obvious fact that the company wants to focus on cloud computing and go beyond just the manufacturer of the Linux distribution.

Red Hat has its own opinion of what an open cloud is . The idea is that OpenShift allows you to select a programming language, framework, and middleware - and this is a guarantee of the absence of the vendor lock-in . Both Java and JRuby are supported in OpenShift, so Red Hat seems to want to continue developing and enhancing its PaaS to attract the attention of new developers.

Created in 2001, the JRuby project is an open source Java implementation of Ruby, the main manners of which, besides Natter and Enebo, are Ola Bini and Nick Sieger. Sun Microsystems hired Enebo and Natter in 2006 when plans were made to expand the number of programming languages ​​working in the JVM, but after Oracle acquired Sun, they left the company due to the “uncertainty” of the future of JRuby in Oracle.

Joining Sun team in 2006, Nutter wrote :

The main goal is to give JRuby the attention it really needs. Sun noticed the potential for Ruby on the JVM, and so we will focus on making JRuby as complete, fast, and stable as possible. We will continue to help provide more support for Ruby tools. As for personal priorities, I will continue to expand the JRuby community, promote greater collaboration between Java and Ruby, and will work on the Ruby-on-JVM “full platform” strategy for Sun Microsystems.

It seems that JRuby's “baton” passed from Sun to Red Hat and will be implemented in Java thanks to the OpenJDK project.