Eric Roux – AB/CO/AP Going to a “Linux only” operational world… The consequences for AB/CO/AP European Organisation of Nuclear Research Geneva - Switzerland

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 2 Outline Assuming the operational platform is LINUX, what is the impact on: Java applications Java on Windows & Linux, exactly the same behavior ? Consequences on the development phase Applications deployment C/C++ applications Launching HP-UX applications on Linux consoles Linux Windows Manager choice for X-Motif application MS Windows applications Launching MS windows applications using the “passerelle” from Linux

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 3 Even if the interpreter versions are exactly the same and coming from the same provider, the 100% Java portability is a myth when it comes to GUIs. This problem does not affect non-graphical Java developments. Main Look problems: Font mapping is never one to one. Readability problems of text on disable components Main Feel problems: GUI behavior dependent of the used windows manager. Printing problems with some applications (i.e. JDeveloper) Impact on java applications Java on Windows & Linux, exactly the same behavior ?

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 4 The PS Experience: PS Java developers are able to write and run Java GUI applications from MS Windows and Linux platforms. The same tools are recommended for both platforms The access to the Linux NFS repository is done via a Samba server from the MS Windows world. The support of the Linux & MS Windows development environment should be passed to IN. Developing & running Java GUI applications on different environments is increasing the work in terms of: testing phase: a solution should be provided to validate Java graphical applications from any environment in an operational test environment. maintenance, each time we have to switch to a new version of IDE, JDK, or window manager version under Linux. Impact on java applications Consequences on the development phase ?

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 5 Independently of the operational platform choice, the application deployment will be done by Java web Start. From our experience and tests we have remarked that: It decreases significantly the launch time. We see that it still consumes a lot of time as Java Web Start searches its configuration files in the user home directory which is in AFS. This requires further investigation. Impact on java applications Applications deployment

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 6 Launching HP-UX applications on Linux consoles They can continue to be launched on a remote HP machine using “rsh” from the YACOMA console manager until the backend servers are migrated to Linux. Linux Windows Manager choice for X-Motif applications Our requirements to IN: The choice of the Windows manager should be done such that it will facilitate the running of our all our GUI application (X-Motif & Java). It should support the same facilities as exist under Windows (copy/paste,…) Impact on C/C++ applications

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 7 All MS Windows applications (including “passerelle” applications) can still be launched from Linux using the rdesktop service. In a few words, rdesktop is to Linux what Exceed is to MS Windows machines. It opens a remote desktop on a MS Windows server machine in a windows under the Linux platform. rdesktop is provided freely with the Red Hat Linux distributions but is not guarantee to work forever as it relies on MS windows communication protocols. Impact on MS Windows applications Launching MS windows applications using the “passerelle” from Linux

13 May 2004ER -AB/CO/AP 8 Main Points Java GUIs Look & Feel differences on Windows and Linux. Linux as an operating console environment increasing development time if GUI development remains on Windows. Transfer the support of Java development environment to IN. Performances issues using Java Web Start for deployments under Linux must be solved. Confirm existing X-Motif application run on Linux consoles. MS windows applications can be launched from Linux using rdesktop