Oracle Buys Sun
So, what does it mean? I think it's all really too early to tell. Some say [put your fav Sun tech here] will die/advance but really, who knows what Ellison is thinking? I use a lot of Sun products at work; Java, Solaris and OpenOffice being at the top of the list. So it's certainly in my best interest to keep things going as they are. Will Oracle kill anything on purpose? Not too sure. Will things change, for better of for worse? You bet.
However, I feel that in the immediate future, things will go on as they always have. The Java ecosystem is too big for anything to stand in its way. If Oracle mismanages any Sun related asset it recently acquired, you can bet that the open-source community will do something about it (say, fork any GPL-ed code). Think about it though, it's actually also in Oracle's best interest to keep Java alive and well. Much of their middle-ware use desktop Java. JEE is also a big industry, mostly because there is no alternative, so why kill a good thing?
On the other hand, Oracle is a much more commercial company than Sun ever was. What does this mean? Well, if something is not earning any dollars, it probably would not survive Oracle's cost-cutting measures. I hope in the end Sun is alive as an entity in Oracle and Java and its related technologies continue to be managed by that entity. Oracle can (and should) keep things in check by ensuring Java can be monetized without jeopardizing its status as an open-source product. God knows there's no better PR than being open-source (looks what's happening to Microsoft).
Side note: It's been a while since I've blogged about anything. Busy with work as usual. Good thing is, work has been interesting.
May 12th, 2009 - 15:53
In the short term, Java is ’safe’. Other Sun products that are competing directly with Oracle products may not be, e.g. Sun application server.