Enterprise Java in the Blogosphere

So much has happened in the enterprise Java space over the past few months that it kind of boggles the mind. Fortunately, the rockstars, gurus and industry watchers have been busily sorting out the whats and wherefores of this epic transformation in the blogosphere. (You thought it was just me, right?) Seems like a good time to pass along a bit of that wisdom with some recommended reading.

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, should definitely go first here, because his was the calm and experienced voice in the middle of the early dear-god-don't-call-it-EE4J storm. His writing on the Eclipse Foundation's "Life at Eclipse" blog provided the urgently needed clarity of facts as the process of moving Java EE from Oracle to his organization stirred a blinding cloud of rumors and fears. His blog was also often interactive, a place where the new regime reached out to the community for its opinions and concerns, at times literally surveying the people most directly affected by the changes. One of my fav posts: "On Complexity and Good Intentions." (Great title, too.)

Reza Rahman, long-time consultant, former Oracle Java developer evangelist and co-founder of the Java EE Guardians, is another must-read enterprise Java blogger in general, but he's doing something new that should get some extra attention: he's posting successful Jakarta EE adoption stories. His latest is from a young developer in the Czech Republic working on medical applications, who shares his experience with both Spring and Java EE applications. He also points to a long list of adoption stories curated on the Java EE Guardians Web site.

Mark Little, vice president, software engineering, at Red Hat, is another must-read blogger. On the subject of the open sourcing of Jakarta EE, he holds forth in a brief, but heartfelt post entitled "Jakarta EE is Officially Out," by which he meant "available." Red Hat has been among the leaders of this transition, and Little is often right out there at the forefront.

Tomitribe Founder and CEO David Blevins' post "Java EE to Jakarta EE" was another how-we-got-here-and-where-are-we-going piece about the rebranding. I reached out to Blevins early in this process, but he and his colleague elected to stay quiet until the ball was well and truly rolling. This post offers some insights into the renaming process early on, and makes the case for Jakarta EE. It's done deal, I know, but it's good to see some of thinking behind the changes.

I must mention another Tomitriber here: Richard Monson-Haefel, author, analyst, veteran Java developer, who's March 30 post, "I (heart icon) Jakarta EE" just made me feel good about the future of enterprise Java. It's the story of his journey from early enthusiast to disillusioned apostate and back again. Just a well written story that got me interested in his other posts. It'll do the same for you. (I also loved "Jakarta EE Into the Fourth Epoch." The guy is a good writer.)

In February, Lightbend senior developer James Roper posted a rich piece on the company's Tech Hub blog site called "What can Reactive Streams offer Jakarta EE?" In it, he shares his ideas on this topic with lots of detail, starting with a high-level use case. (Lightbend, of course, is the company behind Scala.)

Nice post by IBM's Ian Robinson on the developerWorks blog: "Jakarta EE – The new home for enterprise Java." Big Blue has a real stake in the Java space, and those with a long memory will recall that it was the original home of the Eclipse Project, which it open sourced way back in 2001. Plus, you gotta love a blogger who quotes an obscure Queen lyric.

Ivar Grimstad posted a nice clarifying piece called "The Relationship Between Jakarta EE, EE4J and Java EE." Grimstad's posts are informative and to the point, and this one is no exception. This particular post was listed in the FAQ section of the Jakarta EE Web site at launch.

Software evangelist David Delabassee published a nice, short piece in April entitled "The Road to Jakarta EE" on Oracle's official Aquarium blog, in which he offers a little roadmap, acknowledges his colleagues' efforts and shares a few insider observations on the process of moving Java EE to Eclipse.

Finally, you don't get much more nuts-and-bolts than Java rockstar and consultant Adam Bien's blog. Code snippets, on-the-ground examples and advice, video clips and tons of links; it's just a blog you should be reading. (But you knew that.)

This is just a handful. I'm hoping you'll let me know which ones I should have included, but didn't. (In the comments section or on Twitter @johnkwaters.) This is going to be a long conversation, and I, for one, think the more voices we hear from, the better.

Posted by John K. Waters on May 30, 2018