freshmeat: Linux Needs Java, and Vice Versa

"Linux has been used extensively and very successfully as a Web server, but the face of the Web is constantly changing. In its current form, Linux can't compete with Windows without Java on the enterprise level. Many Linux Web servers serve either static content or dynamic content generated via CGI or the popular PHP. Neither of these systems have built-in enterprise functionality. While almost any language can use XML (and in turn use SOAP or XMLRPC to make remote method calls), there is more to enterprise functionality than remote method calls. Enterprise functionality includes remote method calls, load balancing, fail-over, transactions, and a myriad of other stability and scalability functions.

Enter Java. Java already provides this functionality on Linux, without the high price tag of Windows-based solutions or high-end Java Application Server solutions. There is already JBoss, a powerful Open Source EJB server, available for free and completely community supported. Couple this with Jakarta, the Apache Foundation's Java Servlet Engine, and you have an extremely powerful enterprise server. For those who want the safety blanket of commercial support, there is always the Enhydra application server at a very low cost (I believe $99 + support costs). All this on Linux at no or low cost.

There are other advantages to pushing Java on Linux, such as name recognition. When CEOs hear Linux, they might shrug, but when they hear Linux and Java together in the same sentence, they'll start to listen. In the current economic downturn, all companies, small to large, are going to look for ways to save money on IT. Linux can present enterprise-level functionality for pennies compared to the cost of proprietary solutions, which will make any CFO happy."

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