Sun Tech Days 2009

The conference has ended. I want to take some results. Perhaps I will not smear, just go over the points. Five things that I would like to point out.

Javafx

Leitmotiv section of client technology. JavaFX is a platform for developing RIA, rich Internet applications. Competitor Adobe Flash and Microsoft SilverLight.
The platform is raw, slow (all the speakers avoided the performance issue), but its potential is huge. What is 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 a 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, in order not to spoil the impressions of the platform.

Cloud computing

It seems that only lazy people are not talking and writing about cloud computing. At the conference, this topic was presented with a booth with two Americans (one of whom was of French origin), who were very much asked to take their word for it (miracles on their monitors did not look very convincing, because there is nothing spectacular in the clouds). At lunchtime 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 SaaS theme and everything else related to cloud computing, but so far all the results lie within the corporate network and are not available to mere mortals.

SunSPOT

Dear, incredibly tasty, but, in my opinion, a useless toy. A controller with a couple of dozen sensors (including a light sensor and an accelerometer) on which the java-machine is spinning (respectively, you can program it in Java ME). In addition to sensors, a thing has something like a wi-fi adapter (data is transmitted according to a standard that is very similar to the standard wi-fi) and some other pleasures. Spots can communicate with each other, which is actively used by developers: one controller is hung on the robot, the other is being controlled. Thus lured gullible visitors to the stands.
For educational institutions, a developer kit (two spot + manuals) costs 400 US dollars, for all other 600.
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Opensolaris

He seems to have been the most actively promoted. LiveCDs were scattered everywhere, an install-fest was taking place, a separate section was even allocated. It was interesting to listen not so much about the Solaris itself, but about the charms that came with it: Sanovsky's ZFS file system and a miracle for those who want to know everything - DTrace. But, oddly enough, I noticed the inhabited Solaris only with two speakers, the others were glowing with Ubuntoy and Windows. I made conclusions, I am not in a hurry with experiments.

Blackbox (Sun MD s20)

"Energy efficient data center with superdense component placement." A standard shipping container, in which you usually carry fish stuffed with eight standard 19-inch server racks, a cooling system and other necessary things. Very convenient: the company can place the 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 blackboxing are obvious: mobility, environmental friendliness, low cost.
Warranty, according to the flyer, is 1 year.

A lot of things happened at this conference, still not drowned in my head. And the Jeet Cole plenary report (the most important Java in the world), and a beer with sausages. Of course, shoals did happen, but on the whole it was organized very, very well. Thank you Sana for these three days.

Yes, one more thing. When asked about the refusal to be sold, IBM replied: “Sun refuses to comment on rumors.