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March 4, 2010
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Free Chapter from the OSGi and Equinox Book

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How exciting to finally have the Equinox and OSGi book done (see the book review from DZone). In the Eclipse community, many people complain about the lack of documentation and reference material, well that should be less of a problem given the book and excellent Toast example.

You can download the first chapter for free (and the 6th chapter).

I may be a bit biased (see the kind words about me in the Acknowledgments section of the book), but I believe this is the most comprehensive book on OSGi out there. The authors have many years of practical OSGi experience, from the days to when OSGi wasn’t cool yet (SMF) to when it became the basis of Eclipse. On top of that, I think the best thing that comes out of this book is the open sourced Toast example. Expect to see a lot us within the Eclipse community use this example when we talk about OSGi, Equinox and EclipseRT.

So what are you waiting for, go buy the book and learn about OSGi.

March 4, 2010
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Register for EclipseCon Exercise 2010

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Are you attending EclipseCon 2010?

Does snacking on all that conference food (think chocolate fountains) make you feel guilty?

Want to improve your 5K time :)?

Well, I have good news. This year, EclipseSource has graciously sponsored the EclipseCon Exercise event. To attend, please register on the wiki and let the event organizers know that you’re coming. This year, we have something special for the runners due to sponsorship, technical tees!

Anyways, I want to continue the tradition of morning exercise during the conference and I hope to see some fresh faces this year in the morning. There really is no better way to start off your morning than running through some fresh California air.

March 2, 2010
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Mylyn and the Little Things

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I had one of those “I love Mylyn“ moments today…

Why yes Mylyn, that’s exactly what I wanted to do with that problem (besides banishing it from my workspace).

It’s the little things that make you smile and see how far we’ve come with the IDE experience. It also makes you want to curse those who don’t think there’s a benefit to IDEs.

But seriously, give Mylyn a try if you aren’t using it already. If you don’t know what Mylyn is, watch this webinar.

March 2, 2010
3 Comments

Open Source Business Resource (OSBR)

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I recently joined the advisory board for The Open Source Business Resource (OSBR) which is one of my favorite reads when it comes to crossroads of open source and business. I find that when it comes to quality business-related open source material out there, we don’t have many options (or I’m just not aware of them yet). I mean, besides opensource.com, a couple analyst firms and a few interesting blogs, I don’t have much to go on.

In the latest issue of OSBR which targets the mobile industry, there’s one article I really appreciate by Andreas Constantinou which starts off with this revealing quote…

“Open source licenses tell only half the story. The governance model, the implicit rules defining transparency and influence into an open source project, is the small print that determines the power dynamics around that project.”

If you haven’t noticed, the mobile industry is in an open renaissance when it comes to giving people access to source and allowing them to contribute via a variety of levels. For those who had the pleasure to work in mobile in the past, this is a bit shocking given how the industry previously treated access to mobile operating system source. The important part of the article is when it starts mapping open source license types to governance models (see the fairly accurate figure below). And discusses how the mobile industry needs less marketing hype around the benefits of openness, but more education and clarity on governance models.

See where Eclipse fits in (it’s snuggling next to Symbian)? Do people like it there :)?

Just because Android says they are open, doesn’t necessarily mean they are when it comes to governance. Anyways, give the latest OSBR issue a read if the mobile industry is your cup of tea. If you want to see anything in upcoming issues, like a potential theme covered, please let me know.

March 1, 2010
5 Comments

I miss the turbo button…

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I’ve been having some problems with my computer hardware as of late. From my MacBook Pro needing a new mainboard last week ($350) to my iPhone dying ($199… apparently water damage… which I claim shenanigans on… iPhones now ship with moisture indicators which can void your warranty in a heart beat… I’ll paint mine white next time). Now, it seems my MacBook Pro is making funny clicking noises occasionally and causing my applications to slow down a bit. I believe it’s an omen…

Hardware failures are frustrating. Back in the day, we had a !@#$ing TURBO button.

Alright, maybe it didn’t fix much, however, it felt good to press it.

Take note hardware manufacturers.

February 25, 2010
4 Comments

The Future of Application Servers at EclipseCon

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve helped plan and organize a panel at EclipseCon called The Future of Application Servers.

In the past few years, application servers have been evolving rapidly and with the advent of OSGi leaking into application servers, we are seeing modularity being introduced to the typical application developer. The main goals of the panel is to explore what application servers may look like in the future and how application server programming models may evolve. The panel will feature leaders from their respective application server communities… from Eclipse Virgo (dmServer) to IBM Websphere:

  • Glyn Normington (VMWare/SpringSource)
  • Graham Charters (IBM)
  • Rich Sharples (JBoss/Red Hat)
  • Mike Lehmann (Oracle)
  • Greg Wilkins (webtide)

John R. Rymer from Forrester Research will be moderating the panel.

If you’re interested in the future of application servers, swing by and attend EclipseCon!

February 25, 2010
3 Comments

Recent Eclipse Project Proposals

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In the past month, there’s been a lot of new Eclipse.org project proposals…

If anything looks interesting, feel free to give the projects feedback as they go through the Eclipse Development Process. Personally, I’m looking forward to the logo of the ELF project as I have this vision of an elf sitting on a moon (or something to that nature).

February 22, 2010
4 Comments

Rock the Eclipse Board Vote 2010

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Today, the Eclipse Foundation’s Board Member elections start (to be exact, February 22, 2010 at noon EDT). You should receive an email with voting instructions if you’re eligible.

I insist you vote. If you can’t vote, I highly recommend you become an Eclipse Member as it gives the power to vote and influence the future direction of Eclipse.

The people that both represent committers and solution members have a unique position to push the board on specific subjects. I recall that last year, the committer representatives pushed extremely hard to have JGit hosted at Eclipse.org (due to it’s unique licensing situation). The first time we brought the issue up we were denied the move. However, through some passionate persistence on the committer representatives end, we pushed forward and were successful with the JGit move. The committer representatives also had a large impact on moving the Eclipse Marketplace forward. Although it’s not the appstore some of us envisioned yet, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

As for who you should vote for, I can simply say I vote for the people who are passionate and are committed (see Ed’s post) to the success of Eclipse. As always, I would be honored to be given the chance to represent the committers again on the board. I believe we have a great thing going on at Eclipse in respect to technology and open source project governance. I can only guarantee that I will continue to be passionate, do my best to attract/mentor new projects and improve the processes within the Eclipse community.

So what are you waiting for, rock the vote this afternoon.

February 15, 2010
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Open Source Bug Reporting Etiquette

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Over the weekend, I noticed a bug trickle in…

I first thought… wow what a !@#$, this is not a way to win friends and influence people…

I was thankful my team responded correctly with the mantra of killing people with kindness.

As open source developers, we have to remember to have some restraint when interacting with our consumers. The old adage of killing people with kindness should apply to most of the cases we deal with. As consumers of open source software, it’s important to follow some basic etiquette rules when hitting a problem and reporting a bug:

  • Be civil and positive when reporting bugs. Saying the !@#$ing software sucks isn’t going to help.
  • Be patient when reporting bugs. Some people work on projects on a volunteer basis (if you need better support, some open source projects have commercial support offerings).
  • Don’t double post and spam all the open source project’s communication channels.
  • Read “How to Ask Questions the Smart Way” and live by it

In the end, it’s all about interacting with people. Over the net, it’s easy to forget that we are actually dealing with people; not autonomous robots without any emotion.

February 8, 2010
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Eclipse, Symbian and the Rise of the Weak Copyleft

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In case you weren’t aware, the Symbian Foundation recently open-sourced their Symbian^3 platform under EPL. I’ve had a few people come to me and ask first, what is the Eclipse Public License and why would Symbian choose that license say over the GPL or APL.

So let me try to answer some of those questions (note: IANAL).

What is the Eclipse Public License?

The Eclipse Public License is an OSI approved license. It’s a weak copyleft license similar in spirit to the LGPL. Any changes and certain additions to EPL-licensed code need to be licensed on under the EPL.

This is unlike the GPL where it dictates that any work that is based on GPL-licensed code must itself be GPL-licensed. Some people like to call this licensing behavior viral.

If you want to learn more about the EPL, check out the EPL FAQ.

Why did Symbian favor the Eclipse Public License?

Well, according the Symbian FAQ, here is the reason…

“The Symbian Foundation has instead chosen the EPL because it wants to be absolutely clear about this: device manufacturers will be able to add new features and support new hardware without having to make all of that code open source, except where they are changing or making certain additions to EPL code supplied by the Symbian platform. We expect that device manufacturers will see the value of enriching the Symbian platform by contributing their innovations, but we don’t insist that everyone must contribute everything.”

On top of that, I postulate that Symbian recognized the importance of giving people a choice and protecting the investment in the Symbian platform code. This is where I argue a weak copyleft license like the EPL actually gives you more freedom than a strong copyleft license like the GPL. The GPL wants to devour your code and all of its friends. The EPL gives you a choice.

Why not LGPL? Well, there are some patent retaliation and reverse engineering clauses in the LGPL that make certain companies legal departments nervous. Other than that, I actually like the LGPL’s weak copyleft spirit.

The Rise of Weak Copyleft Licenses

One of my predictions is that in the near future, we will see a significant rise in the usage of weak copyleft licenses. If you’re looking to build an ecosystem full of commercial and individuals members, a weak copyleft license is the best choice in my humble opinion. Eclipse first blazed the weak copyleft builds ecosystems path with the CPL/EPL followed by Symbian. Microsoft is getting into the game with the MS-PL license (which is weak copyleft). Even Intuit’s Partner Platform is dancing with the EPL. I’m sure there are others in the wild.

Do other people have strong feelings on weak copy left licenses? Do you see a pattern too?

On a side note, if you have the time to burn on legal issues, I highly recommend taking a gander at Janet Campbell’s “Managing Open Source Legal Issues” video on EclipseLive.

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