Google Web Toolkit Leaves Beta
The Google Web Toolkit, an open source framework to help developers create Ajax applications using Java, graduated from beta testing on Tuesday.
In announcing the official 1.4 release of the software, Google engineers Bruce Johnson and Dan Peterson all but declare desktop application development dead.
If you’ve been in the technology industry for a while, you probably remember when enterprises and software vendors had to think pretty hard about whether to develop locally-installed desktop applications or Web-based browser applications.
These days, whether you’re building mashups, gadgets, or full-blown applications, it’s a no-brainer: The browser is the delivery platform of choice.
While Adobe, Apple and Microsoft among others might not be so quick to dismiss desktop apps, writing software for the Web has become the preferred path for many and Google Web Toolkit deserves some credit for that.
Before Google Web Toolkit came along — 2005, if you can remember that far into the hazy past — developing AJAX applications was significantly harder than it is now in part because different browsers handle JavaScript in different ways.
As Johnson and Peterson explain, Google Web Toolkit lets developers write code that works across a variety of browsers:
The magic trick is that Google Web Toolkit cross-compiles Java source code into standalone JavaScript that you can include in any Web page.
Instead of spending time becoming JavaScript gurus and fighting browser quirks, developers using Google Web Toolkit spend time productively coding and debugging in the robust Java programming language, using their existing Java tools and expertise.
I’m personally pleased with the results.
Google Web Toolkit will really save you time in maintenance and is a great tool for scaling your server, because it allows you to ship off a lot of state information to the client.
Google Web Toolkit 1.4 offers significantly better performance than earlier iterations of the software as well. I feel the need, the need for speed 
On the Google Web Toolkit blog, Johnson estimated that recompiling applications with Google Web Toolkit 1.4 can result in software that has 30% less code and can run 20% to 50% faster.
Microsoft Bound By GPLv3 Says Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation says Microsoft’s deal to resell Novell’s open source software stack makes it a party to the GPLv3 and extends patent protection automatically to all open source users.
The FSF, creators of the controversial new software license designed to fend off lawsuits against open source users insists that Microsoft is bound by the license through its marketing alliance with Linux distributor Novell.
Microsoft “cannot declare itself exempt from the requirements of GPLv3,” the Free Software Foundation said in a statement issued this morning.
The FSF published the General Public License, version 3, on June 29, 2007.
Among other things, it states that companies that distribute open-source software licensed under GPLv3 cannot extend patent protection to some users of the software and not others, regardless of how or from whom the user received it.
Microsoft, which claims that Linux and other open source software programs violate its intellectual property rights, has pledged not to sue customers of open source distributors with which it has formal agreements. Those distributors include Novell and Xandros.
In the press release the FSF said that Microsoft’s deal to resell Novell’s open source software stack makes it a party to the GPLv3.
As a result, the patent protection Microsoft has promised to Novell customers automatically extends to all open source users, the FSF claimed.
If any user receives a discriminatory patent promise from Microsoft as a result of purchasing a copy of a GPLv3 program from a Microsoft fulfillment agent, Microsoft would be bound by GPLv3 to extend that promise of safety to all downstream users of that software.
The FSF also said that it will “ensure” that Microsoft “respects our copyrights and complies with our licenses.”
Linux itself is not licensed under GPLv3, but other parts of Novell’s distribution are covered by the new license.
In July, Microsoft said it would exclude software covered by GPLv3 from its alliance with Novell.
Microsoft has also said it believes that the anti-lawsuit provisions in GPLv3 have no legal standing.
So what do you think Geek With Laptop readers? Does Microsoft need new legal council or is the Free Software Foundation just trying to stir the pot and get more notice of GPLv3?
Sun and IBM Partner on Solaris
Sun Microsystems and IBM have announced a partnership whereby IBM will distribute Solaris 10, re-selling Sun’s support subscriptions for the OS running on IBM BladeCenter and System x servers.
Although IBM already offered Solaris as an option on some servers, the agreement extends this by adding Solaris subscriptions, which are provided by Sun.
According to the vendors, the agreement is about offering customers more choice.
That’s true to a certain degree, and the agreement makes sense for both companies:
- Sun gets another channel to market for Solaris
- IBM gets the possibility of additional hardware or consulting sales
The obvious risk for the vendors is that Sun will lose out on hardware sales and IBM on sales of its own Linux support packages, but that’s good for users.
Sun and IBM have been rivals for a long time, but Sun’s decision to make Solaris open-source means that there’s much less reason for their rivalry to continue, at least in the software space.
With Solaris already running on non-Sun hardware and IBM’s long tradition of offering non-IBM components that may appear to compete with its own (chips from Intel and AMD, OSs from Microsoft and the open-source community), there’s really no reason for them not to partner.
The risk for Sun is that the partnership could become too successful. Customers might begin to identify Solaris with IBM, something that’s already happened with Sun’s other great innovation, Java.
Access Prepping Linux OS For Palm?
A new Web site has appeared from Access touting its next-generation mobile Linux operating system.
According to the site, the new Linux OS will be loaded with capabilities desired by smartphone users around the world. Will Palm take advantage of it?
The screen shots that are available at the Access Linux Platform Web site sure do look good.
Whether or not they are mock-ups, who knows, but the functionality and ease-of-use factor displayed on the site will go a long way toward furthering the adoption of mobile Linux if it’s real.
Access is promising that the new platform will be flexible and can support Linux, Garnet (also known as Palm OS) and Java.
That means it will be backward compatible with the myriad applications that already have been written for Palm OS and Java environments.
The new platform also supports just about every type of mobile service you can think of, including e-mail, SMS, 3G, hotsyncing, and more.
It has been long rumored that Palm will be bowing a new piece of hardware to replace the Treo by the end of the year. The Gandolf phone that’s been floating around the Internet for close to three months now is supposed to be it.
The big question is, will Palm use this new platform from Access as the backbone for future devices, or will it stick to its Garnet guns for the time being?
As nifty as Garnet is, it really needs to be updated and has fallen behind in the ever-evolving world of mobility.
Now’s your chance, Palm.
Google Pack Picks Up Free Office Suite
Google’s cold war against Microsoft Office is heating up.
Google Pack, Google’s free software bundle now includes StarOffice, the productivity software suite distributed by Sun that is the basis for its open-source project, OpenOffice.org.
StarOffice includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, and database applications, along with a library of images and 3D effects. Normally available for $70, StarOffice is free with Google Pack.
Google has long avoided positioning its online productivity applications as Microsoft Office competitors, preferring instead to emphasize Google Docs & Spreadsheets programs as tools for collaboration. The addition of StarOffice to Google Pack shows Google confronting Microsoft more directly than its rhetoric suggests.
Google’s gradual assault on Office should continue later this summer. That’s when, according to Google engineering director Sam Schillace, Google is planning to release online presentation software that competes with PowerPoint, another Microsoft Office application.
And lest anyone mistake Google’s interest in collaboration as disinterest in competition, consider that — as Google watcher Ionut Alex Chitu notes in a recent blog post — one difference between the $70 StarOffice and the free OpenOffice is that the former includes Microsoft Office migration tools.
It’s worth noting that Dell, which distributes Google Desktop and Google Toolbar on its PCs as a result of a deal struck with Google last year, distributes OpenOffice (and not StarOffice) with its Ubuntu Linux consumer PCs.
The next step would probably be the addition of a plug-in that lets you synchronize local documents with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, so you can have the best of the both worlds: edit complicated documents offline, collaborate and store files securely online. For now, StarOffice is integrated with Google Search and Google Desktop.
- Ionut Alex Chitu
That step may involve Google Gears, an application programming interface (API) that Google released at the end of May to help developers add offline capabilities to online applications.
The last time Google Pack grew was in March, when Google added Symantec Norton Security Scan, PC Tools Spyware Doctor Starter Edition and Google Photos Screensaver.
Motorola MAGX For Mobile Linux Developers
Last month, Motorola shipped its next-generation Linux-based phone, the RAZR2 V8, for North America.
The follow up to that launch is the debut of a new development platform the company is hoping will be a big hit with mobile Linux developers.
Previously, Motorola had relied heavily on Java-based developers for its mindshare.
Now the company is widening its scope with the debut of MOTOMAGX. The next-gen open platform supports native Linux application environments as well as applications developed in Java ME.
Phones developed with MOTOMAGX are expected to come with Opera Web browsers as well as technology to enable widgets and other Web 2.0 experiences.
In the next few years, Motorola said it expects about 60% of its handsets will be built using MOTOMAGX.
Motorola plans to introduce to select developers the MOTOMAGX tools as part of a global series of MOTODEV summits or exclusive, one-day events.
Does that mean the end to Motorola’s love relationship with Java? I don’t think so.
There are currently more than 100 Motorola products that offer a Java runtime environment and the company doesn’t seem likely to throw out the ME with the bathwater anytime soon.