14 DAY TRIAL // Reported compatibility issues involving Java Standard Edition 6 and Windows Vista has spawned an official position from Sun Microsystems aiming to clarify the situation. Fending off the potential incompatibility problems of Java SE 6 and Vista, Sun has emphasized on the seamless integration of the two to the point of harmony.
"There were various areas where Vista had changed substantially from Windows XP that we needed to account for," said Chet Haase, architect for the Java desktop client group at Sun.
Sun engineers even adapted Java in order to resolve the problems emerging from the simultaneous usage of the Vista Aero Glass desktop manager, and Vista's graphics subsystems, and Java.
"Some folks have noticed that when they run Java applets in the browser, that Aero and desktop composition would get disabled. This was due to Java locking the primary buffer, and when that happens, the DWM no longer has access to the resources needed to draw the desktop, therefore we disable desktop composition. Sun has since addressed this issue," Greg Schechter, software architect for the Windows Presentation Foundation at Microsoft.
Earlier versions of Apple's QuickTime/iTunes also exhibited this primary-locking behavior, disabling the Desktop Windows Manager. Following the latest updates introduced to QuickTime/iTunes, the issue has been resolved.
"We encourage the breadth of the developer ecosystem to target the world's leading development platform and are glad that the Java community sees the advantages of running applets on Windows Vista," said Jaye Roxe, Visual Studio group product manager at Microsoft.