On the road towards Apache Karaf 2.2.0

It seems like is was only a few weeks ago that I was blogging about Apache Karaf 2.1.0 going towards it's first release candidate, now we're well on the road towards 2.2.0! This means that we'll be spending time reviewing our issue tracker and delegating tasks to contributors/committers. Once we have a stable source tree I'll proceed to follow our release guide to deliver the new build for our community to review and vote upon. Please stay tuned as the release approaches, this new version has in excess of 150 updates! So we'll have a lot to discuss about newly introduced improvements and features :)

In case you're wondering, once the 2.2.0 release is cut we'll create a 2.2.x maintenance line, and start the 3.0.0 branch for future development :)

32 years of Computer Science at Memorial University

Tonight the Department of Computer Science celebrated 32 years at Memorial University. Staff, students, and friends all gathered at the campus bar Bitters for a scoff, share a few yarns, and single malt scotch. Good times were had by all.

Happy 1 << 5 years!

A Brief History of Apache Karaf

Everyone once in a while a question comes up in discussion of Apache Karaf regarding its origins. Well to help answer this question I've written up this brief history of Karaf so that I may reference it.

In the beginning...

Apache Karaf can trace it's origins back to the Apache Servicemix project's Kernel. As early as 2008 the first blog posts regarding its development can be observed. The first GA release was on September 18th, 2008. The original release notes can be viewed here. Subsequent releases soon followed, introducing new features.

The Servicemix Kernel was off to a great start, eventually however by spring 2009 the project grew to the point that it was thought best to leave Servicemix and join it to the Apache Felix community. It was felt that this would allow awareness to grow about the project, and to expand the Kernel community. At this time the Servicemix Kernel project was renamed to "Karaf". For those of you interested about how the project became called 'Karaf' here is the relevant excerpt from the discussion:

"A carafe is a small container used for serving wine and other drinks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carafe). In similarity to the name the Kernel allows applications to be more easily handled, and improves their characteristics (much like a bottle of wine left to breath in a decanter) :)"

So why the respelling? It was felt that 'Karaf' would be an easier search target, and it would fill the relatively empty 'K' project name listings at Apache ;)

Once established in the Apache Felix community Karaf again started to grow and mature, once again coming to the point that it was felt that another growth spurt was required - becoming a top level Apache project. This occurred mid 2010. Since then Apache Karaf has released it's first GA as 2.0, and several point releases and patches. The community is now busy readying the next major point release, and preparing for its future 3.0.

Apache Karaf and the road ahead for 2011

It's been a while since I last wrote on where Apache Karaf is heading over the next few months, so I thought I'd write up this brief post on the subject.

Apache Karaf 2.1.x maintenance branch:

We released 2.1.3 earlier this month, and already have plans for 2.1.4 in the works. If more releases are required for fixes then we'll see 2.1.5, etc.

Apache Karaf 2.2.0 and maintenance branch:

We originally wanted to have Karaf 2.2.0 out before the end of 2010, but we were delayed waiting on some dependencies to be released. Now that those are starting to be crossed off our list I'm hoping to start release process work on this soon. Once a 2.2.0 is vetted, cut, and released, then a 2.2.x maintenance branch will be made.

Apache Karaf 3.0.0 and maintenance branch:

As discussed earlier, this release of Karaf will be for JVM 1.6 or greater. An effort to put forth a user survey to help guide development of this release has been set in motion. Given that this version is early in the planning stages, it'll be a while before we can start talking about when we could be seeing early snapshot versions.

This is Newfoundland

I want to share this Newfoundland and Labrador tourism commercial with my friends at Apache. Anyone that has chatted with me on our IRC channels for any length of time will eventually to be told long stories about this province and its people. It's sometimes hard to match our surroundings here to the cutting edge software projects we take part in :)

Am I too old to have new heros?

I'm home sick with flu, so watching youtube videos - found the below site:

These guys are my new heros.

Apache Karaf 2.1.3 Released!

The Karaf team is pleased to announce the availability of Apache Karaf 2.1.3.

This release of Apache Karaf is based off of the 2.1.x series branch, representing an update to Apache Karaf 2.1.2. It contains several bug fixes identified in the prior release, and updates the versions of SLF4j, pax-url-mvn, spring, and pax-exam.

To help make the transition from Apache Karaf 2.1.0/2.1.1/2.1.2 to 2.1.3 easier I've put together the following table of changed dependencies:

Artifact	Karaf 2.1.0	Karaf 2.1.1	Karaf 2.1.2	Karaf 2.1.3
jetty.bundle.version	6.1.22_2	6.1.25_1	6.1.25_1	6.1.25_1
junit.bundle.version	4.7_1	4.7_2	4.7_2	4.7_2
slf4j.version	1.4.3	1.4.3	1.4.3	1.5.8
spring.version	3.0.3.RELEASE	3.0.4.RELEASE	3.0.4.RELEASE	3.0.5.RELEASE
pax.exam.version	1.2.2	1.2.2	1.2.2	1.2.3
pax.url.version	1.1.3	1.1.3	1.2.1	1.2.4
pax.web.version	0.7.3	0.7.3	0.7.4	0.7.4

For more information please see the release notes.

Newfoundland based Celsius Game Studios hits Apple App Store with Red Nova!

Game developers in Newfoundland have been keeping very busy with Celsius Game Studios releasing their second title Red Nova to the Apple App Store!



Obviously the game looks awesome, and offers some leading edge features:

• Universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
• Retina Display graphics
• Sweet dynamic camera zooms for following intense action
• iOS Controller: use an iPhone or iPod Touch to control Red Nova on an iPad wirelessly (that's pretty slick), and
• Dynamic touch controls for faster reaction times; no more hunting for fixed buttons when you really need them.

The game is already racking up rave reviews online, and has been included in best of 2010 lists. It's clear that Celsius Game Studios has hit upon a top tier release title, I can't wait to see what they'll bring to market for 2011 :)

About Celsius Game Studios:
Celsius Games Studios focuses on bringing to the market only the freshest, most exciting in programming and game design. Red Nova is their second release title, following Chromodyne (also available in the App Store).

A few items...

Being the new year I think it would be a good time to catch up on a few items... 

So to start, the Apache Karaf 2.1.3 release candidate is currently up for review! If all goes well in the voting process I hope to have the RC graduate to full release status tomorrow evening!

I've been told that it has apparently been a while since I last uploaded some dinner pics, so I present the below pulled pork sandwiches I enjoyed today while visiting my server farm:

These were made by the systems admin (Dwayne Hart), and I must say that they were awesome!

In other news I'm still coding, just not with FuseSource anymore... I've moved on to other pastures, but rest assured I'm still very active in the Apache Community, and look forward to remaining active with the community for years to come :)

Finally, I'm very happy to say that we are just about fully recovered from the hurricane Igor damage we suffered last fall. All we have left is some fence repair in the spring and furniture to replace :)

Camel in Action

 

I received my personal copy of Camel in Action from Jon Anstey this week, I thought I'd share the inscription:

"Jamie,

Bet you never thought our coffee & code

outings would result in something like

this :) Enjoy the read!

Jon"

'Back in the day' Jon & I would met up and head downtown for some free wifi and code time. The venue of choice was Hava Java. I spent my time on Servicemix 3 and a little sub-project called the Servicemix Kernel, while he was working on Camel. We'd basically try to pick a Jira issue and submit a patch by the time the wifi would overload & shutdown, or his wife arrived to end the nerd games ;)

Those were good times, and I'm excited to see his (and Claus') work in print! Great job guys!

The future of JDK 1.5 support at Apache Karaf

After some discussion on the Apache Karaf dev list we've come to a consensus on Java 1.5 support. The Karaf 2.x line will continue to maintain JVM 1.5 compatibility. Going forward, with the Karaf 3.x line, JVM 1.6 becomes the minimum supported JVM version.

As of this writing no 3.x branch of Karaf exists. We currently only have 2.1.x and 2.2.x series releases planned which will of course be JVM 1.5 compatible. Any future 2.x branches will also be JVM 1.5 compatible.

Apache Karaf on Hudson

We have updated the Apache Karaf build profiles on Hudson to include the Karaf 2.1.x patch branch and the main line trunk.

Apache Karaf 2.1.x:
https://hudson.apache.org/hudson/job/Karaf-2.1.x/

Apache Karaf main line:
https://hudson.apache.org/hudson/job/Karaf

This should improve maintenance and support as builds will automatically deploy snapshots to the Apache repositories, allowing users to pick up bug fixes even faster :)