Java Technology Winners & Losers - 2006

Here are the winners and, yes, even losers for the most and least innovative and/or impacting Java technologies in 2006…

First, the winners for 2006:
Java IDE Platform/general Java Framework

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans wins over Eclipse this year, because NetBeans has made significant progress and growth relative to Eclipse. A year or so ago, NetBeans seemed dead and buried. Eclipse is still the market share leader, but has lost momentum to NetBeans and perhaps other IDEs out there, imo.

Enterprise Java/Java EE Framework (front-to-back)

Spring Framework 2
JBoss Seam 1.x

Persistence/ORM Engine/Framework

Hibernate

Java EE app server

GlassFish Java EE 5 app server
Some might argue for JBoss, but it’s not yet Java EE 5 certified. SAP Java EE 5 app server could be hon mention, though.

Java Web Framework/API

JavaServer Faces (JSF) and Ajax Hon mention: RIFE and Wicket
Much of the market metrics show JSF has grown significantly in the last year and a half or so, most of which relative to Struts 1.2.x. Next year, it may be the forthcoming Struts Action Framework 2. We’ll see.

Dynamic Java Scripting Language/Framework
(Web tier alternative to Java Web Frameworks)

Groovy/Grails Framework
JRuby (on Rails)
Hon Mention: Rhino (JavaScript)
I think these are leading in innovation, interest, etc.

Java Web app server

Apache Tomcat
Yes, Jetty is intesting, but nearly every significant Java player like JBoss, Apache Geronimo/IBM WebSphere, and much more have adopted Tomcat as part of their stack or app server strategy. Tomcat is the de-facto standard.

Build Tool

Apache Ant
Yes, Maven is interesting, but Ant is still de-facto standard, at least for 2006, imo.

Logging

Apache Log4j

Testing Framework/tool

TestNG

Mobile/Wireless Java app dev IDE/framework

J2ME Polish

Most Potential

JBoss Seam
JRuby (on Rails)
Java ME/Java Card/embedded Java (in general)
These round out winners of 2006.
For Losers of 2006 check it out More>>