Java Developer Journal (SYS-CON) Announces Readers’ Choice Awards for SOA, Web Services, Java, and XML Technologies – We love Eclipse!

It seems to be awards day or so. On Syscon (Australia) I found the announcement of the JDJ Reader’s Awards. It is interesting, because of the fairly literate and neutral audience that helps assigning these awards – though having a multinational with 1000s of employees to help cast the vote does not hurt. What do the results tell us? What we want them to tell us, presumably. Almost every player in the game won some awards. Oracle certainly will be disappointed for its IDE and AppServer scores – not on the list. The consolation comes from Enterprise Database of the Year, Best Java Persistence Architecture and Java Component of the Year (ADF).

A more serious glance at the winners. Eclipse is the hit of the year
– Best Java Application, Runner Up for Best Java IDE (after IntelliJ IDEA), Best Rich Client Platform (Eclipse RCP), Best Team Development Tool, Most innovative Java Product, Best Java Class Library, Best Java Debugging Tool.

Important listing of the Java Application Servers:

1) Best Java Application Server

Winner: BEA WebLogic Server (BEA Systems)

Runners-Up:
1) JBoss Application Server (JBoss)
2) Sun Java Application Server (Sun Microsystems)
3) IBM WebSphere Application Server (IBM)

Did you expect Sun to be up there? I did not… Oracle did not either I suppose. Where is Oracle AS? Note that BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere also rank very high (2nd and 3rd runner up) for Best Java Application; funnily enough have JBoss and Sun disappeared on that list).

For Best Enterprise Database , Oracle is no surprise as the winner. IBM DB2 ranks second and HSQLDB comes third. Let’s repeat that: HSQLDB comes third. For Best Enterprise Database. Hmm. No MS SQL Server on this list. Sybase comes fourth. MySQL is not be see. But they were best database in the Developer.com Awards and you cannot have it all. In the list for Mobile Databases, IBM DB2 EveryPlace is the winner, followed by Pointbase Micro, SQL Anywhere (Sybase), Berkeley DB Java Edition (Sleepy Cat).

I was surprised by:

12) Best Java Data Access Tool

Winner: IBM Rational Application Developer (IBM)

Runners-Up:
1) Oracle Application Server TopLink 10g (Oracle)
2) DBVisualizer (Minq Sofware)
3) Kodo JDO (SolarMetric/BEA Systems)

and

23) Best Java Persistence Architecture

Winner: Oracle Application Server TopLink 10g (Oracle)

Runners-Up:
1) WebObjects (Apple)
2) iBatis SQL Map (Open Source: iBatis)
3) Kodo JDO (SolarMetric)

Not sure what exactly the difference between these two should be. I never catagorized Rational along with the runtime ORM frameworks such as TopLink, KODO and…. where is Hibernate? (here they are: 26) Best Java Book Winner: Hibernate in Action (Manning Publications))

One final category of interest, actually two:

13) Best Java Messaging Tool

Winner: IBM WebSphere MQ (IBM)

Runners-Up:
1) Sun Java System Message Queue (Sun Microsystems)
2) TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (TIBCO)
3) JORAM (ScalAgent Distributed Technologies)

19) Best Java SOA Kit

Winner: BEA WebLogic Workshop (BEA Systems)

Runners-Up:
1) Java Web Services Developer Pack (Sun Microsystems)
2) IBM Emerging Technologies Toolkit (IBM)
3) Oracle JDeveloper (Oracle)