Native POSIX threads + Java under FreeBSD 5.3 release i386

[Olaf Greve]

Hi all,

As is typical, I have once again been given very limited time to get 
something running, and there are some interesting things to figure about 
about it. :)

In brief, the application is a distributed one, loosely based on some 
CORBA concepts, though differently (fortunately!). The supported 
programming languages are C/C++/Java/Ada, of which Java will probably be 
the one we would like to use.

Now, the issue is (or may be), that the recommended (and only tested) 
platforms are Solaris and Linux (particularly Red Hat and SuSe - kernel 
versions 9). The apparent reason for this, is that the platform requires 
the NPTL (Native Posix Threads Library).

I'm looking somewhat into the support for NPTL under FreeBSD 5.3 release 
i386, and I have come across the following URL:
http://www.unobvious.com/bsd/freebsd-threads.html
 From this, it sounds like the LinuxThreads (i.e. 
/usr/ports/devel/linuxthreads) should do the trick.

However, I have no experience with these threads and I wonder whether it 
is a good idea to try to get the platform working under FreeBSD (my 
favourite Unix), or whether it may be better to install Red Hat or SuSe 
this once. :)

Can anyone tell me something about the following:
1) Does the linuxthreads library provide 100% NPTL support, as under Linux?
2) Does usage of the library incur a kernel recompilation, or will all 
scripts of the platform have to be changed such that the linuxthreads 
library is linked in?
3) A different question: what is the best JDK 1.4.x port to install, and 
does one of those perhaps have support for NPTL?

I hope anyone can help me out a bit with this, even if it only is about 
whether to make the best choice between figuring out how to get this 
platform going under FreeBSD (being the Unix with which most experience 
I have), or whether to try to go Linux and have a -perhaps- more 
straightforward installation of the platform (at the expense of not 
knowing the particular intricacies of those Linuxes).

Help/opinions are very much appreciated. :)

Cheers!
Olafo