After installing an OS on the second server for the first time I put the Sun Java Enterprise Systems CD in the drive and started to install the application server. I realized it was about to install version 8.1 which is from 2005 and uses Java 1.4. I want version 9.0 which uses Java 1.5 so went looking. I downloaded a setup program just for the application server, not a whole CD. I think this is going to let me install regardless of which distribution of Linux I use, like the NetBeans installer.

Anyway while downloading it, I started to look into Sun's collaboration suite which includes mail server, webmail client, calendar server, and possibly more. A while back I was dead-set on using this but it turns out the collaboration suite is not part of the Java Enterprise System, meaning it's not free. That was a bit dissapointing since almost everything else Sun has is now free for development and deployment. I decided not to use it.

While waiting for the first download to complete I started reading news. I found out the following:

• Java 1.6 has been finalized and is about to be officially released, if it hasn't already. My first thought was "What?! Java 1.5 is so new though".. I thought this because I don't know many/any people who have left 1.4 yet and some who are still using 1.3! These people are behind the times because 1.5 has been in the works since 2003 and was released in 2004. It has been out there for over 2 years and now 1.6 is out. That's great news. The language didn't get major changes like 1.5 did (generics, EJB 3.0 spec, etc), but there were a ton of new features added. For example, you can now write apps that use the system tray in whichever OS you're using. Swing is even faster than before.. and well I forget what else. I looked at the list and it seemed like over 100 new features. I'm going to continue with 1.5 for a while and will look at 1.6 more in 2007.
• Unbuntu and Sun are working together. Ubuntu is now certified for use on Sun's line of Opteron x86 servers and it is Sun's preferred linux distribution. That's great because for desktop use it's my favorite. I can't use some of Sun's server software on it though which sucks.
• Ubuntu is going to ship with Sun's application server in future releases!! They are shipping Glassfish, the open source version of Sun Application Server 9.0 Platform Edition. I believe Glassfish is where all the development happens (bleeding edge) and once and a while (once a year?) Sun takes a snapshot and makes it Sun Application Server. This is awesome news! I wonder what other Sun software will run on Ubuntu in the future? Probably all of it. That means I can switch from OpenSUSE to Ubuntu on my servers at some point. I like SUSE's yast system, but don't like a number of other things. For example, the update system shows me all updates for everything including software I don't have. I don't know which of the 200 updates I should be checking. Also when I tell it to install updates, it fails to even start because of libzypp? I don't like SUSE's default layout for Gnome, and how I'm forced to have all kinds of software I don't want on a server. There's no server edition of OpenSUSE.

I feel like I did when I was around 12-14 where every day I was discovering more new and exciting things about programing and computers. Anyway I really need to get back to my SCJP practice exams. I haven't touched it for a few days now. It's kinda hard sitting through 2.5 - 3 hour practice exams several times a week.