James Gosling has left Oracle. The Java world has been commenting
about it since, and of course I shall add my penny's worth. I think
this was an inevitable outcome. Sun gave their top luminaries a lot
of freedom to do pretty much whatever they wanted as long as there
might be some kind of long-term benefit to Sun. That's pretty
flexible! And it worked, it produced Java, and many other things
useful to the broader I.T. community. For a Java admirer like myself,
I fully admire Sun for doing that.
But there is a cost to that freedom - it is difficult to justify
in accounting terms. Oracle is very much more focused on the bottom
line contribution than Sun ever was - this different focus is what
resulted in Oracle being able to take over Sun and not the other way
round, and will quite likely ensure that Oracle makes Java an even
greater success than it already is. I admire Oracle for being able to
do that. But that focus on the bottom line will inevitably mean that
Sun luminaries will have less freedom at Oracle, the freedom they had
from Sun was never going to be there in the same way. Now if you were
a Sun luminary, let's face it, you don't have to adapt if you don't
want to, there are so many other opportunities out there. Even now I'm
sure the offers are pouring in to Mr. Gosling from various enterprises.
I would have been astonished if all of the old Sun luminaries stayed
under the new Oracle management - and Java is going to benefit from
that, these are hugely talented people and many of them are going to
go and start something elsewhere that is going to result in brilliant
new contributions and products for the Java world.
0 comments:
Post a Comment