During EC hearing, Sun Microsystems releases Java EE6, NetBeans 6.8 and GlassFish v3

Even as the European Commission was holding a hearing on concerns from the Oracle-Sun acquisition on Thursday, Sun Microsystems released three much-awaited items: Java EE6, NetBeans IDE 6.8 and GlassFish Enterprsie Server v3. This SOA-friendly hat trick will no doubt come as a comfort to some who worried Sun might slow its engines during the complicated acquisition.

The Java EE6 spec includes profiles for a variety of application scenarios, including a Web Profile, which strips away some of the enterprise-grade functionality for more lightweight web applications. Sun also said Java EE6 has more RESTful web services.

The new GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 complements its open-source counterpart, GlassFish v3. In addition to being integrated into the NetBeans, Sun said start-up time has been greatly improved in the new GlassFish.

For NetBeans 6.8, Sun said new features include expanded PHP support, better integration with open-source hosting environment, Project Kenai, better C/C++ profiling and full integration with Java EE6. A free, open-source IDE for Java, NetBeans plays in a similar market as Eclipse.