Red Hat is partnering with Google to build on Google's Web Toolkit (GWT), technology that enables users to cross-compile and optimize Java code as JavaScript for use in different browsers.
But what does this mean? Why should anyone care?
Rich Sharples, director of Product Management at Red Hat, suggests that GWT was the shortest route to cutting through the clutter of competing RIA solutions like Appcelerator, a startup that employs some JBoss veterans and which just raised $4.1 million in venture capital and wants to displace Adobe AIR and other Rich Internet Application (RIA) platforms...like GWT:
The world doesn't need another Java framework for developing rich AJAX apps. so we've decided to go with what we think is a real leader - Google Web Toolkit.
But Red Hat's work with GWT isn't about competitors, as Sharples told me in a follow-up email. It's about customers and developers, and offers significant insight to Red Hat's development strategy:
If there is a grand plan, it's to deliver what developers and customers actually want. We're a demand-driven business - if we don't give customers that they want then we face the prospect of having to compete with some much larger and much more powerful competitors on [their] terms [, not the customers'].
I think that JBoss/Red Hat represents a maturity with respect to how it views technology that I haven't seen anywhere else....[T]he reason we can punch way above our weight is because we've accepted that we don't have to be the sole source of innovation for everything we ship: we're willing to forego some control for the advantage of being able to deliver a technology stack composed of the best, most popular components.
That's practical because we've spent the last 3 years building a very flexible and adaptable server-side platform (JBoss AS 5.0.0) - the same run-time can be use to deploy stateless GWT apps., Spring apps., Ruby apps. or BPEL or Java EE / Seam apps. or whatever else comes along. We won't inflict a different run-time on customers just because they choose a new framework or technology. Operations people like stability and consistency. Developers like choice.
In other words, Red Hat's work with GWT is a chance for Red Hat to cater to developers already-expressed desires for a Red Hat RIA story, but within the context of the enterprise. This, of course, requires a developer focus, and for that I also asked Michael Neale, a senior engineer on the JBoss Drools project with Red Hat, to give me the developer perspective on Red Hat's GWT development:
... Read moreMicrosoft has been trying hard to get the world to care about Silverlight. Visit Microsoft.com and you'll be forced to install it if you want to stay on the site. Microsoft has also been out on the evangelism trail, talking up its Rich Internet Application platform alternative to Adobe.
As Tim O'Reilly writes, however, it doesn't seem to be having any effect, a fact confirmed by other data, as well. Silverlight is still a dog on the Internet.
... Read more
It's incredible to see all the things that can be done in a browser these days. It's also incredible that we persist in exposing it all through a browser.
I don't know about you, but I don't want my 21st-century software life lived within the ugly vestiges of the 20th century. The browser, for me, is early days with "browsing." Who browses anymore? Who could?
I like the way Google does it on my BlackBerry. Can I access Google Maps, News, etc. in a browser? Yes. But I like having separate icons for them on my BlackBerry. I like to think of them as distinct applications, in other words.
... Read moreMarc Fleury, founder of JBoss and sometime DJ, is back in the open-source saddle as advisor to Appelerator, an interesting open-source company that provides tools for building Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). I mentioned here the other day that with Ben Sabrin joining Appcelerator other JBossers were sure to follow. This is perhaps the biggest coup of all....
Of Marc's addition, Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator, said:
Marc has been a collaborator and a friend for years and we're pleased to formalize his relationship with Appcelerator. We believe the knowledge he developed building JBoss, to the point where it quickly became a true challenger to much larger competitors and a substantial industry force, will be invaluable to Appcelerator as we look to achieve similar dominance in our pursuit of the enterprise RIA development market.
I've been fortunate to talk shop with Marc several times since his departure from Red Hat. He is razor sharp on open source and will be an excellent help to Appcelerator as it grows.
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