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Become a better Java developer, benefit from Open Source |
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Written by Peter Thomas
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Mar 06, 2007 at 05:51 AM |
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Page 1 of 2 A couple of years back, the phrase 'Open Source' would have brought to mind visions of a geek hacking away, driven purely by the joy of creating living, breathing code and deriving satisfaction from just seeing his code being used and acknowledged by others.
But things seem to have changed almost overnight. Open Source has undeniably become a very visible movement, a disruptive force. Software vendors who used to be known for their expensive offerings are open sourcing some, if not all of their flagship brands. Venture funding for companies having even the slightest connection to open source are on the rise, almost reminiscent of the build-up to the dot-com bust not so long ago. People are trying all kinds of ways to make money off open source. Suddenly Open Source is starting to take on more commercial connotations, a far cry from the principles out of which the whole Free and Open Source Software movement was born.
"Open Source has undeniably become a very visible movement, a disruptive force..."
I’ll not get into a discussion now whether this is good or not, but would like to dwell on the positives for a moment, specifically in the area of open source development tools.
There is a lot to learn and there is great value that you can get from Open Source. If you are a Java developer you can use a whole bunch of open source tools for free, right from the essential IDE, unit test tools, code coverage, continuous integration, version control and even automated functional testing tools. Some things like Ant stand out because come to think of it, there is really no commercial equivalent for it!
"It is possible to run a whole Java development team on entirely open source tools..."
It is possible to run a whole Java development team on entirely open source tools. Many development teams do this across the globe and this is increasingly being acknowledged as a best practice. On a side note, one wonders how commercial IDE vendors can hope to cope especially given the fierce competition between Eclipse and NetBeans for example. And yes, a few companies in this space that have fallen by the wayside come to mind. But some IDE vendors appear to be thriving, focusing on providing what developers want and by innovating more. Don’t you still encounter the odd developer who swears by his commercial Java IDE or wishes that he was still using one? Anyway, open source clearly drives innovation and that is indeed a good thing – whether commercial or not.
"Open source clearly drives innovation..."
Beyond development tools, there is a whole assortment of open source Java applications out there and they are growing in number and maturity. I would say that this is a case of open source breeding more of the same. Say you are a Java developer and you are consumed with this vision of the ultimate killer-app that will change the world. If you have the drive to go right ahead and start coding, there is very little that stands in your way of creating something that others will sit up and take notice of. All you need is a PC and an internet connection and you are good to go.
Even better is the fact that getting the attention of like-minded developers out there is so easy. Wasn’t the Internet born out of the need to connect a bunch of geeks? I like to think of that as the primary purpose of the Internet. Hackers share a couple of ideas over the Internet and bam! The next thing you know it’s all Ajax and Web 2.0.
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