Changes In Attitude

It's these changes in attitude, changes in latitude
Nothing remains quite the same
For all of our running and all of our cunning
If we didn't laugh, we would all go insane
                                    - From Jimmy Buffett's "Changes In Attitude, Changes In Latitude"

So early yesterday, Oracle announced the impending demise of their commercial version of Glassfish.  The intent is to focus on one commercial server - WebLogic.  On the plus side, it's good to see the focus.  On the negative side, WebLogic is too heavyweight for my desktop development environment.  And building on open source Glassfish to deploy on commercial WebLogic introduces new risks that I'm unwilling to accept.

With all that in mind, I decided to spend part of my day yesterday building up a new Oracle Linux VM (VMware, not Virtual Box - I just like the UX better on VMware) and installing WebLogic 12.1.2.  Maybe I can figure a way to make this all work.  Besides, it's been awhile since I did this, and it sounded fun to my inner geek.

So. I quickly brought up an Oracle Linux 64-bit 6.4 VM.  Not a big thing.  Downloaded the generic installer for WebLogic 12.1.2.  Logged in as root.  Edited my hosts file.  Installed JDK 1.7.0_45.  Created an Oracle install group ("oinstall") and added a user to the group with a password of "oracle".  Created my directory for Oracle middleware, changed ownership for the directory and modified the ownership profile.  Setup my $MW_HOME, $JAVA_HOME, and $PATH.  We're looking good.

Log out.  Restart system.  Log in as "oracle" user.  Start up the configuration and install for WebLogic.  Wait?  What's this?  Oh yeah, I have to change the bash profile to default to 256 colors or the Oracle Universal Installer won't run.  Not a big deal, but ironic that I need to modify Oracle Linux in order to run the Oracle Installer for Oracle WebLogic.

And that's when it hits me.  My inner geek has taken me down a path that's a real pain in the backside.  A smarter person would not modify the bash profile.  Nor would a smarter person setup a $MW_HOME, $JAVA_HOME, and $PATH.  A smarter person would not have set up the Oracle Linux VM.  In fact, a smarter person would not get wrapped around the axle about the concerns over Glassfish versus WebLogic.  Nope, not at all. A smarter person would not burn their precious calories in this way at all.

I had to laugh.  A smarter person would simply run their development environment in the cloud - WebLogic as a Service - and let somebody else worry about all the underlying infrastructure.  Time for a change in attitude.

Where I live, winter is coming.  Wonder if I need a change in latitude to support my change in attitude?  Hmmm....