Lamia's stack and heap based memories...

Two items at dzone.com caught my eye this week and seemed worth mentioning to you. First, barring the occurrence of some major unforeseen problem, Microsoft is just one final test version away from releasing the �golden master� of its new Vista operating system. This is really big news for both Microsoft and the industry as a whole, even if Vista has lost several of its more intriguing features during the years of its development. Vista is the next wave of big business for Microsoft and for legions of ISVs, system integrators, OEMs and resel lers whose economic prospects are tied in with those of the industry leader. (Note: I have to tell you I made a Freudian slip when first typing the previous sentence, typing �bug business� rather than �big business.� Of course, �u� and �i� are very close to one another on the keyboard) Many billions of dollars are at stake with Vista, numbers so huge most of us probably cannot even begin to comprehend their scale. For Microsoft to be just one final �test version� away from finalizing its next big thing is major news for our whole industry, if not for the global economy.

The second item was a disconcerting one, at least one the surface of things. It appears that Vista and certain desktop Java applications do not play well together. One of the most promin ent features of Vista is the �Aero� graphics effects that give the Vista UI its distinctive, high-gloss appearance. In testing at eWEEK Labs it was discovered that running Swing or Eclipse SWT applications can cause this slick-looking Vista eye candy to be completely disabled, at least on the recent pre-release build 5728 of Vista. If you�re interested in more details, then a nice discussion of this problem and its possible causes and solutions is available in the forums at Javalobby.

So, let�s put two and two together. Vista is just one final test version away from being released to production, and Java desktop applications are somehow disabling the slickest and most visible part of the new Vista interface. I don�t know how you feel about it, but I think this is potentially a very sticky situation. I have not heard any indication that this problem is the result of some new conspiracy involving either of the former archrivals, Sun a nd Microsoft. On the contrary, it seems to be a genuine case of a regrettable technical problem that is getting noticed very late in the game, perhaps too late for it to be fixed before Vista is finalized. Another interesting dzone.com link last month, �Microsoft's Process: What it takes to get a bug fixed before Vista ships� made clear how impressively difficult it is to get changes made to Vista. Judging from that description, it will be a minor miracle if this Java/Vista problem is successfully resolved. Ooops!