Is Sun JDK still an option?

Assuming you're talking about the possibility of IBM buying Sun, then I'm not sure what you're worried about. IBM has a lot invested in Java and builds a big chunk of it's business on top of it - they've got a vested interest in keeping it around and working.

IBM buying Sun would make Java more stable, in my view.

Java has so many parties so heavily invested in it that it isn't going anywhere any time soon. In fact Java is one of the few unique things that IBM can really get from Sun. I am more curious to see what happens to Solaris and Sparc personally.

Tons of businesses rely on it. Don't worry.

/MindWipe

Great to hear. I'll be honest, 6 months ago I wouldn't have touched java with a 10 foot pole. I don't know why, but I've always wrote it off as a niche low end language (I think Runescape had something to do with that). But after giving NetBeans and JDK a shot, I was completely blown away at how rapidly I could deploy my ideas and get things up and running. I was even more surprised when I booted up good ole' Windows XP in virtualbox (I run Ubuntu x64 as my host OS) and the whole program ran with absolutely no problems or changes. Throw in the fact that I can take my library packages, and use them in mobile apps, just made java that much more appealing.

My last question -- I may be wrong but didn't IBM work on Eclipse as a competitor for NetBeans? If so would they kill off NetBeans if they got a hold of it? I've tried Eclipse and just didn't like it for some reason. NetBeans seems to flow well with me so I'd like to stay in that environment :)

Thanks again though, that's great news to hear.

Oh and on Solaris, I tried Solaris out for the first time last week. It lasted a whole 30 minutes on my pc before I wiped it out and turned the drive back into an extra storage space. More useful that way IMO. I don't see how a half-assed gnome hackjob is supposed to pass as a valid desktop experience.

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Original post by essial My last question -- I may be wrong but didn't IBM work on Eclipse as a competitor for NetBeans? If so would they kill off NetBeans if they got a hold of it? I've tried Eclipse and just didn't like it for some reason. NetBeans seems to flow well with me so I'd like to stay in that environment :)

Both are open source and are pretty popular, so I don't see either going away any time soon. That's the nice thing about OSS, even if the company who produces it goes belly-up, the products will live on if they are good enough.

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Original post by essialOh and on Solaris, I tried Solaris out for the first time last week. It lasted a whole 30 minutes on my pc before I wiped it out and turned the drive back into an extra storage space. More useful that way IMO. I don't see how a half-assed gnome hackjob is supposed to pass as a valid desktop experience.

I have never run it as a desktop, but have run it as a server. I don't really care about, I'm just curious if IBM will keep it and/or their own AIX OS, or abandon both for Linux.