Responding to a rumor started on Microsoft Watch that Java doesn't get along well with Vista, Sun Java Client Group Architect Chet Haase declared quite firmly in his own blog that Java runs quite well on Redmond's next-born. In a Sept. 29 blog posting, Microsoft Watch cited eWeek Lab tests running various Java-based apps on Vista. "In each case, Aero Glass [the Vista UI] wasn't just disabled for the (apparently) Responding to a rumor started on Microsoft Watch that Java doesn’t get along well with Vista, Sun Java Client Group Architect Chet Haase declared quite firmly in his own blog that Java runs quite well on Redmond’s next-born. In a Sept. 29 blog posting, Microsoft Watch cited eWeek Lab tests running various Java-based apps on Vista. “In each case, Aero Glass [the Vista UI] wasn’t just disabled for the (apparently) offending application, but for our test machine as a whole–until we closed the Java app.”The entry dispenses the following advice to Sun: “Sun Microsystems would do well to give a ring to one of the interop contacts at Microsoft that came out of the firms’ historic make-nice agreement back in 2004, and figure out how to make Java apps first-class Vista citizens.” That final bit particularly irked Haase, who responded in a recent entry in his blog. “[O]lder versions of Java do have problems on Vista, and that’s what the original report was about; someone tried running some older version of Java on Vista and noted some problems. But that’s like saying that your favorite XBox game, Bloody Mess X, doesn’t work on XBox360. Of course it doesn’t; the original game was written for a completely different system.”Haase goes into great detail to explain just how hard Sun has worked to adapt Java to the ever-evolving Vista. “… [It] has been an ongoing process of learning, testing, debugging, submitting bugs against Microsoft, fixing our bugs, re-testing. … And since Vista has been a moving platform during the Java SE 6 development process, we’ve been in this development cycle continually with every new drop of Vista (they are still releasing weekly builds for us to test; we just found a bug in RC1 that has since been fixed in the latest release we got yesterday).”(Application developers in particular may want to read his post; it’s quite detailed, technical, and blissfully devoid of marketing.) Java SE 6, by the way, “is the best solution for Vista,” Haase writes. “That release has received most of our focus during the Vista beta release timeframe, and it is where most of the fixes to the known problems currently reside.”As for other flavors of Java: “J2SE 1.5 should work fine, but there may be some nuances that may not be as perfect… . Some additional Vista-specific fixes (such as component animation) may not be back-ported, so the fidelity may not be as close as that in Java SE 6… . But the full gamut of Vista work that we feel is necessary for J2SE 1.5 should be available in update 11, which we hope to release around January of 2007.”Moreover, J2SE 1.4.2 will basically work, according to Haase. “We see 1.4.2 as being functional, usable, and perfect for situations where a customer is absolutely locked into that particular release for now. But we encourage developers and customers to migrate to a more full-feature Vista release soon.” Stay tuned to InfoWorld’s ongoing coverage of Vista for the latest news and reviews. Technology Industry