Apples vs Oranges. Java Container Startup Times

Just recently with @toomasr we've studied how fast are the Java application servers at the boot time. The boot time for an application server is an integral part of what we call the developers' productivity.

The most surprising this thing about the results was that the JBoss 7 average startup times where extremely fast compared to the previous JBoss versions.



At the beginning we couldn't believe this improvement is for real and assumed that JBoss 7 is an OSGi container. But just a bit later some JBossAS developers commented on the blog entry, that actually JBoss 7 has been completely redesigned for classloading performance.

Andy Miller said:

The startup times really don't have anything do with the OSGi stuff that is in there. It's based on a new services architecture underneath, which can start services and load classes in parallel (there are some JVM limits in class loading that make it serial, but we hope that will disappear), and take advantage of the fact that there are multiple cores on virtually every machine someone would use today.

To learn about the new features in JBoss 7, the highly recommended listening can be found at the JBoss Asylum podcasts page.

Thumbs up for the JBoss engineers, really! At least some AS vendors do care about the developers productivity! :)

LiveRebel Product Demo

JetBrains Youtrack

Recently, I've spent some time playing with Youtrack, the bug tracker by JetBrains. The last time I was looking at it was about 2 years ago, when it was announced under the name Charisma.

Long story short - I've a very pleasant experience while trying Youtrack now. But let's take a closer look!


I kick ass withAJAX-based issue management system
What are the features that I've noticed and liked:

The command-line with auto-complete. Sometimes I get really lazy and just unwilling to use the bugtracker as I have to use the mouse and click over several screens in the bugtracker's UI to get the job done. With Youtrack, I can make queries in the command-line that has autocompletion, which is awesome!
Project settings and administration. It took me just a couple of minutes to configure a project and the users. And also I figured out very quickly how to the user roles work. Considering I'm just an ordinary user for this type of software - this is a good sign!
Shortcuts are configured just like in IntelliJ IDEA, which I'm being a big fan of. I think this is an awesome feature for any IntelliJ user trying to use Youtrack.
The UI did not cause any animosity during use for me. Also, you can make screenshots just from the form where you report an issue - a very handy feature I have to say.