Simon’s Blog

Well. That’s it! The decision has been made! We’re switching to Mustang (code name for Java SE 6), for a key project. It’s been a while since we’ve had a requirement to use an “early access” version of Java for an important project. I feel a bit like I felt in 1998! If history repeats itself, I’m looking forward to critical bugs in the JDK being fixed the day before important demos!

Version 1 will be complete and shipped, before Java 6 is scheduled to be officially released in mid 2006. Talk about living on edge! But hey, it’s fun on the edge. And it’s the right thing to do: this is going to be an innovative piece of software (well… you’ll be the judge of that, of course… but I hope it is!); and my judgement is that we won’t be aiming to attract our so-called “late majority” and “laggard” users until Java 6 is well and truly in the mainstream. I’m betting that our “innovator” and “early-adopter” users will appreciate a system that takes advantages of the innovations in Java 6.

Of course, there’s the significant “early majority” group to consider too… but I trust the Sun guys to get Java 6 JREs out on desktops, fast! What with the funky auto-updating technology in Java, and the tens of millions of JRE downloads per month and all… At least… I think I trust them… I mean, there have never been delays with Java before, have there? And I never had a conversation with a key Java person from Sun that told me all about how Java 2 would ship for the Apple Mac, only a short time after it was out on Windows and Solaris. Luckily we didn’t believe that one! Hmmm… why do I suddenly feel like some sensitive parts of my anatomy are now in Jonathan Schwartz’s hands?! And I don’t even have his home phone number!

But I digress! As we move towards an alpha release, I’m guessing you should expect more developer-, Java-, and general software technology-related posts from me…