The real problem with Java in Linux distros

"Java is not a first-class citizen in Linux distributions. We generally have decent coverage for Java libraries, but lots of Java software is not packaged at all, or packaged in alternate repositories. Some consider that it's because Linux distribution developers dislike Java and prefer other languages, like C or Python. The reality is slightly different. Java is fine

"There is nothing sufficiently wrong with Java that would cause it to uniformly be a second-class citizen on every distro. It is a widely-used language, especially in the corporate world. It has a vibrant open source community. On servers, it generated very interesting stable (Tomcat) and cutting-edge (Hadoop, Cassandra…) projects. So what grudge do the distributions hold against Java ? Distributing distributions

"The problem is that Java open source upstream projects do not really release code. Their main artifact is a complete binary distribution, a bundle including their compiled code and a set of third-party libraries they rely on. If you take the Java project point of view, it makes sense: you pick versions of libraries that work for you, test that precise combination, and release the same bundle for all platforms."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Ellison & the GPL Part II(Sep 24, 2010)
• What's Next for Java at Oracle?(Sep 22, 2010)
• What is Dalvik? by Mark Murphy(Sep 16, 2010)
• A Brief Introduction to the Java and .NET Patent Issues(Sep 13, 2010)
• What's wrong with JavaEE 6?(Dec 07, 2009)
• Java development 2.0: Easy EC2(Oct 29, 2009)