Life at Eclipse

I’m happy to share the news that Eclipse Jetty 11 has been released and certified as compatible with the Jakarta Servlet v5.0 specification. Released as part of Jakarta EE 9, this new version of the Servlet specification uses the new jakarta.* namespace. Often referred to as the “Big Bang”, this new namespace is a shift that will enable future cloud native Java innovations for the enterprise Java ecosystem. By supporting Servlet 5.0 and the new namespace Jetty is helping accelerate the adoption of Jakarta EE across the ecosystem. 

Jetty is an open source web server and servlet container that is used extensively in production environments around the world. The software’s small footprint, high performance, and scalability have made it the choice of millions of enterprise application developers and open source project contributors, whether they’re using Java, Scala, Kotlin, or another JVM-based programming language.

Today, numerous well-known products and projects include Eclipse Jetty: Apache Hadoop, Apache Maven, Google App Engine, Twitter’s Streaming API, Zimbra, and the Eclipse IDE are just a few examples that demonstrate the depth and breadth of Jetty’s role and value in the Java ecosystem and broader industry.

Developers Helping Developers

Implementing the namespace change from javax.* to jakarta.* in a single Jetty release required a huge effort by many community members. I want to thank everyone involved!

The fact that the Jetty community felt it was important to implement the new namespace as soon as possible after the Jakarta EE 9 release confirms the importance of Jakarta EE as a solid foundation for the evolution of enterprise Java. The move perfectly reflects the Jetty team’s ethos of “by developers, for developers.”

Lowering the Barrier to Entry

Jakarta EE provides the complete set of specifications that define enterprise Java today. But more importantly, it provides the ecosystem a path to innovate for new cloud native APIs, platforms, services, and business models.

Each Jakarta EE specification includes an open source Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) that allows organizations to self-certify their software with the specification. This straightforward, open process dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for vendors to provide fully certified compatible implementations of Jakarta EE specifications.

Get Involved in the Future of Open Source Java

Over the last few years, the Eclipse Foundation has cemented our role as the vendor-neutral and open source center of gravity for the Java community. We welcome everyone with an interest in the future of open source Java to get involved in Jetty, Jakarta EE, and the other enterprise Java open source projects hosted at the Eclipse Foundation such as MicroProfile, Eclipse GlassFish, Eclipse Vert.x, Eclipse Adoptium, and many more.

Here are a few quick links to help you get started:

• To download Eclipse Jetty 11 or previous versions, visit the downloads page.
• To get involved in Jetty, visit the project website.
• To learn more about the benefits of joining the Jakarta EE Working Group, visit the membership page.

We at the Eclipse Foundation have watched with mounting concern the recent violent attacks on people of Asian descent. We condemn these actions and the bigotry that has driven them in the strongest possible terms. As an organization we stand in support of Asian people.

Overcoming racism represents arguably the greatest challenge of our era. In addition to the pain of its victims, this scourge and the barriers it creates serve only to hinder the advancement of us as a global community; socially, technologically, and economically. The lives of every human are improved when we treat each other with trust, empathy, and respect.

I welcome suggestions from foundation staff and community members on how we can become a more inclusive and welcoming place for everyone.

This is a continuation of yesterday’s Welcome to the Eclipse Foundation AISBL blog.

Yesterday, we announced that we completed our move to European-based governance with the creation of Eclipse Foundation AISBL, a Belgian international nonprofit association. In this post, I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an overview of the membership-impacting changes associated with our move to Europe. 

Part of the transition effort has involved updating our membership documents and bylaws to reflect European-based governance and currency. All of these new documents are available on our governance documents page.  Here’s a quick summary of the key changes of relevance to members:

• Day-to-day interactions don’t change, including the work done in our projects and working groups. 
• Members will be asked to switch their membership from the U.S. organization to the new Belgian international non-profit organization. We will reach out to members over the next few months to make this happen. You can review the draft membership agreement.
• As of October 1st of last year, all membership fees are now restated in euros.  Existing members’ fees are being discounted by 10% from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 to help compensate for currency exchange rates.
• The Solutions membership level is renamed to Contributing to better reflect the diverse group of organizations that participate in, and contribute to, the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem.
• We have established new bylaws to reflect Belgian laws.

For details about these, and other changes for members, see my previous blog, and our frequently asked questions.

We will be contacting all of our members and committers to update their agreements with the new Belgian entity. This may include your membership agreement, committer agreements, and working group participation agreements as applicable. 

If you have questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me, or to our team at eclipse-europe@eclipse.org. Thank you for your support!