Open Source Consolidation

Blogger: Joe Niski

A big week or two (i was on vacation for a bit) in the open source business. (Isn't it great that we're talking about "open source business" without missing a beat?) Sun buys MySQL (with sighs of relief from high-end MySQL users and would-be contributors), and SpringSource nabs Covalent.

Sun, which seems well on its way to open sourcing all its software assets, now has a hugely popular database to round out its software stack. i'd expect to see it as part of the standard Glassfish application server distribution, right alongside Apache Derby (aka JavaDB) before long. Glassfish, with both JRuby and MySQL, downloaded and installed with NetBeans 6.1 - what more could an enterprise web developer ask for? Netbeans/Glassfish may soon be the Rails developer's stack of choice, at least within the enterprise.

Meanwhile, back in Java-land, SpringSource seems happy to now be in Convalent's business of supporting popular Apache apps and components. It also gains a first-class support team for the ever-expanding Spring Framework. Spring has done an admirable job of living up to Rod Johnson's vision of radically simplifying enterprise Java development. The framework keeps gaining functionality (web services, comprehensive app security, OSGI support), and now provides nearly complete presentation-to-enterprise-resources functionality. It's also extending its core inversion-of-control container features into the .NET universe.

Two "superplatforms" in the making? Well, not really - neither Sun's stack nor the Spring Framework provide the depth and breadth of IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP. But as highly usable, flexible, and productive development and runtime platforms, they're hard to beat. And they complement each other quite well. If the superplatform vendors care about developer mindshare, or want a piece of the market for dynamic languages behind the corporate firewall, they should pay attention.