Moderator (MDR): MDR-Venkat
Guest-Speaker (SPK): SPK-David and SPK-pavani
MDR-Venkat: Welcome to the Java Web Server Forum. This is a
moderated discussion and I will be the moderator. The discussion will start at
1:00 PM Pacific. Feel free to send in your questions to the moderator in the
meantime.
We will have two guests today—David Brownell and Satish Dharmaraj. Both of
them work in the Java Web Server group, particularly on security related aspects.
David and Satish should be here any moment...
OK, David Brownell is here. Welcome Dave.
SPK-David: Hi Venkat... and Hello to our audience!
MDR-Venkat: While we are waiting for Satish, probably you may
want to give an update of where Java Web Server is currently.
SPK-David: You mean, like http://jserv.javasoft.com/? I think
that's the URL ... you can certainly find it by browsing from
http://java.sun.com.
MDR-Venkat: Well, our customers are looking for any insider
information :-)
SPK-David: We're at the alpha 1.2 level. Insider information?
You want to get me in trouble with the SEC? No , seriously....We'll be a
product (not called Java Web Server!) first quarter next year. We're working
on lots of new features for our alpha2 release. Things like SSLv3 (what I've
been implementing), proxying, and more.
mhgreen: I'm creating server side functionality. What
will be the base cost of Java Web Server to my customers?
SPK-David: Well, Java Web Server is a server side technology.
Are you selling directly to server providers, or are you selling to clients
over the network? If the former, you're asking how much Java Web Server will
cost and hence what kind of cost structure you'll have. Clients shouldn't have
to pay ... :-) We're aiming for Java Web Server to be a low cost web server,
but I can't give you solid figures. (Would you believe "under $100US"?) Does
that help?
MDR-Venkat: Looks like Satish is not here today. However,
Pavani Diwanji is here. Pavani is leading the Java Web Server software
development effort for Java Web Server. Welcome Pavani
SPK-Pavani: Hi everyone.
mhgreen: Will an individual be able to use Java Web
Server as a personal server on a typical home computer (Mac or Wintel)?
SPK-Pavani: Yes: even today you can run Java Web Server on Mac
and Win32 platforms. In fact it is one of the few servers on the market that
runs on so many diverse platforms.
SPK-David: We have lots of users who use this with CAFE on the
Win32 platform. CAFE is nice, since it has a good just in time (JIT) compiler.
Our speed is competitive with most of the commercial Win32 servers .... On
Macintosh, you should use the Metrowerks "Code Warrior". If you have a "BeBox",
we've run it there ... :-) (Whoops, _other_ folks have run it there!)
MDR-Venkat: What's a BeBox?
SPK-Pavani: BeBox is Jean-Louis Gasse's new creation in the OS
world.
SPK-David: It's got lots of multimedia stuff. We like the idea
of a "personal web server". Kind of a return to the original idea of the web as
a personal publishing tool ... not just for corporate websites.
Terrance: What kind of response from users have you
been getting since releasing Java Web Server?
MDR-Venkat: You want to take that Dave?
SPK-David: OK .... The response has been very positive. We've
had many thousands of downloads. People have been using it on all kinds of
platforms. The servlet API is particularly popular ... we're getting it into
other web servers. It's going to be the primary way to add server side
functionality... like "applets." People like Java Web Server!
MDR-Venkat: What kind of security concerns are there when one
is using servlets?
Actually Terrance has a similar question on security.
Terrance: Does Java Web Server in any way compromise the
security model of Java?
SPK-David: No, Java Web Server can't compromise Java security.
Java provides lots of security mechanisms, and Java Web Server builds on them.
So for example there is a security manager that prevents servlets from
violating the security policies that have been established... if you're
familiar with how the applet security manager works, the servlet one does much
the same stuff. The kinds of concerns people have talked about so far are
mostly like the ones they have with CGI scripts, and existing web servers. We
are of course working on all those.
Fred Gnarly: When will Java Web Server have the user/home
alias thing working? E.g., translating /~gnarly/index.html —>
/home/gnarly/index.html? Other than that I consider myself a happy Java Web
Server customer! I think it's just super! I think you guys are doing just a
bang up job there! Not only is Java Web Server a web server, it's a dessert
topping!
SPK-Pavani: Home directory thing is a bug and will be fixed in
the next release, which is coming out next month!
BGATES: Is Java Web Server a cross platform solution? Does
it run on Win 32? How about the VM that IBM has on Win3.1? Is anyone porting
the Java VM to DOS and will Java Web Server run on DOS if that happens?
SPK-Pavani: Yes: we just answered that question. Java Web
Server is completely written in Java and hence will run on any platform where
Java runtime is available. All (well all the ones that matter) platform have
Java runtime available these days.
SPK-David: Actually, there are some native code libraries for
security purposes. On UNIX, you need native code to set the user ID to be
something other than root. So you can start up on port 80 (a privileged port on
UNIX) and run your server as some less privileged user.... The SSL code needs
some native code too; we're legally obligated to ship some of the crypto
algorithms with an approved implementation, which happens to be written in C.
(All the rest of the SSL code is in Java though!!)
Terrence: Is there any relationship between servlets and
CGI scripts?
SPK-Pavani: Servlets are java objects that run embedded in the
server. CGI Scripts normally are run as a separate backend process, and so are
higher overhead (i.e. incurs the cost of process fork). Also Cgi scripts are not
portable. One other advantage of Servlets over script is that it facilitates
inter-servlet interations.
SPK-David: Basically, we think most people will want to use
servlets instead of CGI scripts. The functionality is quite comparable, and
the advantages of getting rid of process forking are quite compelling!
BGATES: How will Java Web Server be positioned against
Microsoft's IIS server? Will Java Web Server offer more in terms of speed or
functionality? Or is platform independence the only advantage? If I have
already committed to the windows platform, articulate on what Java Web Server
has to offer.
SPK-David: Platform independence for lots of people is quite
important... Remember that lots of suppliers can provide servlets (and are
already working on them). So even if you personally are only using Win32, you
can use code written by other folk who use other platforms. Plus, there are all
those advantages to using servlets, many of which are inherent in using Java
inside the server. So you'll get those advantages with any web server that uses
servlets.
SPK-Pavani: I have a long list for IIS v/s Java Web Server
question. But let's start at the very beginning. Java Web Server is completely
administered through applets on the web. Hence it has a much richer admin GUI
than just html forms. Java Web Server also has a flexible security
infrastructure. So you can configure it according to the needs of your site.
If you are running Java Web Server, for example, in a trusted intranet
environment, you can configure it to allow any servlet uploading. Another
advantage is that since it's a completely Java based solution, you can
seamlessly use beans and RMI in conjunction with servlets. Java Web Server with
power of JIT performs quite well. So we do not see performance as our
disadvantage!
SPK-David: One more comment on this issue, re. "How will we
position," I don't think we can give you the official market positioning at
this time. But you can surely get a preview from what we've said already!!
MDR-Venkat: That was a very informative answer. We are almost
near our time. Let us take a couple of quick questions.
erika: What do you think Jeeves will be named, ultimately?
Is there a suggestion box?
MDR-Venkat: (I personally think Jeeves is a very good name).
SPK-Pavani: No we don't have a suggestion box, this is it—
so fire away!
We think Java Web Server is a good name too!
MDR-Venkat: One last question that is not exactly related to
the Java Web Server group, but let me send it your way...
Terrance: Your home page says you are hiring. What kind
of qualifications are you looking for?
SPK-Pavani: Our metric for hiring is: you have to have light
in your eyes and we should be able to share a beer with you ;). No really we
are looking for motivated and clever people who believe in the vision of Java
and have some cool Java experience!
MDR-Venkat: I hope Terrance is convinced to forward his resume
to the Java Web Server group.
Thanks everyone. Thanks Dave and Pavani for sharing your thoughts on the Forum today.
As always, the transcript will be posted on our JDC website.
Please note: Jeeves is now Java Web Server
