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Exactly right. It'd been awhile since I downloaded Java, and I hadn't known about the Great SE/ME/EE switchover™ at the time. I literally stared at their web

Exactly right. It'd been awhile since I downloaded Java, and I hadn't known about the Great SE/ME/EE switchover™ at the time. I literally stared at their web pages, navigated all over the place, and I couldn't figure out which version I should have. Sun (excuse me, Oracle) needs a big fat "Download Java 1.7" button, that has everything. They should fire everyone else in their marketing department.

elblanco 17y ago
Oh, it's miserable. If they can't even explain what differentiates one from the ta' other, they shouldn't have the options. They also have too many things called "Java" that are really unrelated technologies. Is Java on the server side (say JSP) the same as a Java client app? Outside of similarities of language and libraries not really. All of the frameworks are really different things. The language and the VM are different things (both called Java). The entire platform is called Java. In my view, Java should purely be a "kind of technology" or perhaps a "particular software development pipeline/toolchain". Namely, Code in some language that is compiled to bytecode designed to run in Sun's(Oracle's) VM technology. So instead of just packing in different kinds of cruft and slapping an obscure two letter appendix to the title, they should really call them entirely different things. Sun/Oracle Client VM Sun/Oracle Mobile VM Sun/Oracle Server VM Sun/Oracle IDE/Compiler/Libraries There's no sense in packaging it up and calling that package "Java 7 SE R43" or 1.7 or whatever insane marketing logic non-standard version scheme they're using now. End users download Sun/Oracle Client VM. Period. Server admins download Sun/Oracle Server VM. Period. Mobile VM shouldn't even be a download, it should just be included on all phones that can run it (like it basically is now anyways). Developers download The IDE/Compiler/and Language Libraries. Heck, they compiler and library toolchain should really just come with the branded IDE. The VMs don't really change that much. The standard library shouldn't change that much (if the Java team could ever get their act together and write reasonable interfaces to common things like I/O and hurry up and deprecate bad design decisions). And the class libraries for Client VMs and Server VMs are ultimately very different anyways. The names should be clear and make sense. SE/EE/ME/whatever doesn't help anybody. Client VM, Server VM, Mobile VM does. It used to be this simple, but then they let the monkeys in to the packaging process.
- kburn 17y ago
  You should use "JVM". But other than that you should get a job as Sun's marketing department.

elblanco 17y ago

Oh, it's miserable. If they can't even explain what differentiates one from the ta' other, they shouldn't have the options. They also have too many things called "Java" that are really unrelated technologies. Is Java on the server side (say JSP) the same as a Java client app? Outside of similarities of language and libraries not really. All of the frameworks are really different things. The language and the VM are different things (both called Java). The entire platform is called Java. In my view, Java should purely be a "kind of technology" or perhaps a "particular software development pipeline/toolchain". Namely, Code in some language that is compiled to bytecode designed to run in Sun's(Oracle's) VM technology. So instead of just packing in different kinds of cruft and slapping an obscure two letter appendix to the title, they should really call them entirely different things. Sun/Oracle Client VM Sun/Oracle Mobile VM Sun/Oracle Server VM Sun/Oracle IDE/Compiler/Libraries There's no sense in packaging it up and calling that package "Java 7 SE R43" or 1.7 or whatever insane marketing logic non-standard version scheme they're using now. End users download Sun/Oracle Client VM. Period. Server admins download Sun/Oracle Server VM. Period. Mobile VM shouldn't even be a download, it should just be included on all phones that can run it (like it basically is now anyways). Developers download The IDE/Compiler/and Language Libraries. Heck, they compiler and library toolchain should really just come with the branded IDE. The VMs don't really change that much. The standard library shouldn't change that much (if the Java team could ever get their act together and write reasonable interfaces to common things like I/O and hurry up and deprecate bad design decisions). And the class libraries for Client VMs and Server VMs are ultimately very different anyways. The names should be clear and make sense. SE/EE/ME/whatever doesn't help anybody. Client VM, Server VM, Mobile VM does. It used to be this simple, but then they let the monkeys in to the packaging process.

kburn 17y ago
You should use "JVM". But other than that you should get a job as Sun's marketing department.