Java EE 6 has arrived, and with it its reference implementation, GlassFish 3! Its varying components will not be news to anyone, particularly, who has been following along, but they are still varied and interesting. There are good roundups at InfoWorld and Developer.com.One of the more interesting aspects of Java EE 6 to me is the concept of profiles, and the profile that’s gotten much of the attention is the Web profile. This is, in short, a more lightweight subset of the Java EE infrastructure good for running Web apps; it’s meant to compete with platforms like Spring and even Java-less setups that make running a Web application less gnarly for the developer. A laudable and important goal, to be sure — much of Web development has moved to languages like PHP precisely because Java EE is so gnarly — but the concept of a profile makes me think of the fragmented horror show that is Java ME. Still, if you’re going to be shifting from one sort of platform to another, they might as well be at least semi-compatible. Full-on Java EE will be the obvious place to go when your Java EE Web Profile app needs to grow-up, in a way that it wouldn’t be obvious for a Spring or PHP app. Software Development