Sun WebSpace Server or Liferay?

[14年前 に Hennie de Villiers によって更新されました。]

From the communique available on the Web it seems that Sun's WebSpace Server and Liferay 5.x are the same... or is it really the case?

My understanding is that Sun WebSpace Server originated from the Sun Web Synergy project that encompassed integration between Sun's Open Portal and Liferay.

I presume then that WebSpace server must then include other Open Portal functionality and/or exclude some core Liferay functionality? Is there any information available that highlight the differences in terms of functionality and usability between the two platforms?

How do one choose between the two i.e. what criteria matters?

[14年前 に Gustavo Zaera-Holo によって更新されました。]

Hello, Hennie;

I have been poundering on the same question, and the only real information i've found is that SUN's WebSpace server is more tightly integrated with the SUN Glassfish Appserver.

Have you found more about this matter?

cheers,
gustavo

[14年前 に Hennie de Villiers によって更新されました。]

Hi Gustavo

I have played around with both but, since I am relatively new to the technologies, cannot clearly distinguish the difference.

It seems that project Web synergy (the forerunner of Web space) involved incorporating Liferay into the open portal project or the other way around. Not sure what of open portal is now integrated into Liferay and visa versa.

I suppose the question to ask is what is the future of the two similar but possibly alternative platforms?

I presume Sun will likely lean more towards Open Office and Star Office in building solutions similar to Social Office. I can only anticipate that there will be a fork in the development at some stage and it would be good to know the future difference to plan ahead. I presume this will most likely result in more niche market portlets becoming available on either side and that the core platform may stay much the same.

Can only guess at this stage and it would be great if Liferay and Sun can make more information available.

[14年前 に Gustavo Zaera-Holo によって更新されました。]

Agreed.

I did find some information in a PDF from SUN:

Main differences between Liferay and Web Space

• Support
• Indemnification
• Xcellerators and add-ons
• Quality
  - Testing
• Enterprise collaboration
• Social networking
• Enterprise integration (Java CAPS)

Ref. http://wikis.sun.com/download/attachments/69902749/Web_Space_Server_Introduction.pdf?version=1

[14年前 に Hennie de Villiers によって更新されました。]

Hi Gustavo

Thanks. It looks like this was an early introduction "probably internally to Sun" of Web Space Server. From this it seems that there are definitely a fork in terms of functionality and integration perspectives. It sounds that there must then be differences in term of the core application. It would be interesting to know what that would entail.

I think it is in the interest of both Liferay and Sun to keep a common comparison chart going to clearly define differentiation in terms of functionality and features as well as future direction. This current "unclear" status maintained may lead to wrong perceptions in the marketplace.

[14年前 に Brian Kim によって更新されました。]

Gustavo Zaera-Holo:

Agreed.

I did find some information in a PDF from SUN:

Main differences between Liferay and Web Space

• Support
• Indemnification
• Xcellerators and add-ons
• Quality
  - Testing
• Enterprise collaboration
• Social networking
• Enterprise integration (Java CAPS)

Ref. http://wikis.sun.com/download/attachments/69902749/Web_Space_Server_Introduction.pdf?version=1

Hi Gustavo, that PDF is not accurate.

Here are the facts:

Liferay does provide all of the following:

• Support (we offer 4 different levels of support)
• Indemnification (we offer indemnification)
• Xcellerators and add-ons (we call these Plugins)
• Quality (our QA is 3-fold: internal, community, and partners)
  - Testing
• Enterprise collaboration (built by Liferay)
• Social networking (built by Liferay)
• Enterprise integration (Java CAPS) (we offer enterprise integration with various different applications, both open source and commercial)

[12年前 に Thiago Leão Moreira によって更新されました。]

Check it out this white paper Sun Web Space Migration Guide for more information.

[14年前 に Aniceto P Madrid によって更新されました。]

I was initially interested in Sun's Webspace product, but I think they are not pushing it too much. Their latest release is dated more than 6 months ago. The Webspace manual is one of the useless manuals I've get. It describes only obvious things, what you can read on screen.

I think Sun guys are more worried now abou their future with Oracle than in projects. Sun projects activity has declined, in my opinion, very much in the last year, and I don't agree with the current roadmap of Netbeans.

I think Sun Webspace is not to be trusted for now.

[14年前 に Zsolt Balogh によって更新されました。]

Web Space 10.0 update 6 came out this month(or this week): http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/820-7667/ghkhz?a=view

But you need to pay for support to get this release.

[14年前 に Brian Kim によって更新されました。]

Thanks for bringing up this question Hennie.

It may not be entirely clear to the community what the differences are between Liferay Portal and Web Space Server. The relationship that Liferay has with Sun is a technical one. Both Liferay and Sun recognized that there was a synergy between our two portal teams, and that by leveraging each other's experience in the space, we could built an even better open source portal. Liferay provided Sun's engineers commit access to our code repository. As a result, Web Space Server is not a fork of Liferay Portal. In fact, there is no added functionality in Web Space Server that is not in Liferay Portal. However, there is functionality in Liferay Portal Enterprise Edition that is not in Web Space Server.

To be clear, Web Space Server was built on a flavor of our Liferay Portal 5.2 Standard Edition. Think of it as Liferay Portal re-themed. To compare, Liferay Portal Enterprise Edition's latest release is 5.2.5, which performs exponentially faster than our Standard Edition. Both portals work with Glassfish AppServer. Liferay Portal, however, is supported on all other major app servers.

The reality is that the main difference is in the vendor itself. It may or may not benefit your organization to use Web Space Server if you already have purchased hardware and software from Sun previously. Both Liferay and Sun have its share of pros and cons - that's something that your organization will have to decide.

[14年前 に Hennie de Villiers によって更新されました。]

Hi Brian

Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated.

[13年前 に Gustavo Zaera-Holo によって更新されました。]

A bit late response from me here, but yes, thank you so much for the clarification, Brian.

cheers,
gustavo