OK, it’s the end of 2006, but at least our development shop can return to Java 1.5 when IBM releases a new version of RAD in the second half of 2006. There exact words from the press release are:
IBM intends to ship a new version of Rational Application Developer in the second half of 2006.
I’m just going to hope for the best here, but realistically I bet the next version of RAD may slip to 2007.
The more interesting statement is:
Full Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0 support across all offering…
This statement concerns me. They make absolutely no comment on Websphere Portal Server. Currently the boat anchor in our web stack is Websphere Portal Server 5.1. If I’m reading this correctly, they say there going to support Java 1.5 across all their offerings, but they’re not going to release a new version of Portal Server. Hopefully this was just an oversight in marketing.
At least I’ll get a chance to ask some actual IBM Websphere folks in person this week. The first question will be when Portal Server will finally get upgraded to support Java 1.5.