Contents - Cultural View

Comparison of the Java and .NET platforms 95
the only officially supported platform is Windows. [14] A community port to Linux of the 1.0 shared source .NET
virtual machine is also available. [15] In March 2003, O'Reilly Media published a book about Microsoft's shared
source .NET runtime. [16]
Traditional computer applications
Desktop applications
Although Java's AWT (Abstract Windowing Toolkit) and Swing libraries are not shy of features, Java has struggled
to establish a foothold in the desktop market. Sun Microsystems has also been slow, in the eyes of some, to promote
Java to developers and end users alike in a way which makes it an appealing choice for desktop software. Even
technologies such as Java Web Start, which have few parallels within rival languages and platforms, have barely
been promoted.
The release of Java version 6.0 in December 11, 2006, saw a renewed focus on the desktop market with an extensive
set of new tools for closer integration with the desktop. At the 2007 JavaOne conference Sun made further desktop
related announcements, including a new language aimed at taking on Adobe Flash (JavaFX), a new lightweight way
of downloading the JRE which sees the initial footprint reduced to under 2Mb, and a renewed focus on multimedia
libraries.
An alternative to AWT and Swing is the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), which was originally developed by IBM
and now maintained by the Eclipse Foundation. It attempts to achieve improved performance and visualization of
Java desktop applications by relying on underlying native libraries where possible.
.NET is becoming more common in open source and free software systems due to its inclusion [17] by the GNOME
desktop environment using the Mono framework.
Server applications
This is probably the arena in which the two platforms are closest to being considered rivals. Java, through its Java
EE (a.k.a. Java Platform Enterprise Edition) platform, and .NET through ASP.NET, compete to create web-based
dynamic content and applications.
Both platforms are well used and supported in this market, with a bevy of tools and supporting products available for
Java EE and .NET. And both have high profile backers. For example, for Java: Oracle included direct support for
Java into its database, while Google has used Java to power tools like Gmail. [18]
Some of Sun's current Java-related license agreements for Java EE define aspects of the Java platform as a trade
secret, [19] and prohibit the end user from contributing to a third-party Java environment. Specifically, at least one
current license for a Sun Java EE development package contains the following terms: "You may make a single
archival copy of Software, but otherwise may not copy, modify, or distribute Software." — "Unless enforcement is
prohibited by applicable law, you may not decompile, or reverse engineer Software." — "You may not publish or
provide the results of any benchmark or comparison tests run on Software to any third party without the prior
written consent of Sun." — "Software is confidential and copyrighted." [19] However, while Sun's software is subject
to the above license terms, Sun's Java EE API reference has been implemented under an open source license by the
JBoss and JOnAS projects.
Microsoft's implementation of ASP.NET is not part of the standardized CLI, and while Microsoft's runtime
environment and development tools are not subject to comparable secrecy agreements to Java EE, the official
Microsoft tools are not open source or free software, and require Windows servers. However, a cross-platform free
software ASP.NET 2.0 implementation is part of the Mono project (minus webparts and Web Services
Enhancements). [20]