Java creator James Gosling has left Oracle. What is next for the language pioneer?
Java creator James Gosling has left Oracle.
In an April 9
blog post,
Gosling said he resigned from Oracle on April 2. While at Sun
Microsystems, which Oracle announced plans to acquire in April 2009 and
finalized in January, Gosling came up with the idea for the Java
language and platform in the early '90s and Sun introduced the
breakthrough technology in 1995.
Gosling did not give a reason for his departure, other than to say
that frankness about the situation might "do more harm than good."
Said Gosling:
"Yes, indeed, the rumors are true: I resigned from Oracle a week ago
(April 2nd). I apologize to everyone in St Petersburg who came to
TechDays on Thursday expecting to hear from me. I really hated not
being there. As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: just about
anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more
harm than good. The hardest part is no longer being with all the great
people I've had the privilege to work with over the years. I don't know
what I'm going to do next, other than take some time off before I start
job hunting."
In an
interview with Gosling
at last year's JavaOne, I asked him if there were any scenarios where
he could see himself not being at Oracle. His reply was "absolutely."
Actually, the exchange was as follows:
Q: It's definitely the end of an era for me because I've really enjoyed covering Sun.
A: Well, Sun is now a viral body in a strange host. So we'll see.
Q: Do you think you'll be here?
A: I have no way to predict that.
Q: Well, there are things you will and won't put up with.
A: Absolutely. So I can imagine future histories where I'm gone. And
I can imagine future histories where I'm not. Right now, no data.
However, Gosling weathered an initial transition period as Oracle
began the work of integrating the Sun portfolio into its cache of
software booty, which includes the industry's dominant database
platform.
And in March, Gosling delivered a keynote at TheServerSide Java Symposium (TSSJS) telling the audience that Java was
in good hands with Oracle and would continue to enjoy its position as one of the preeminent enterprise IT platforms well into the future.
Gosling's face became synonymous with Java. And while he enjoyed
accolades from Java's success, he also took the brunt of criticism from
developers on points of discontent -- many of which he had no real
decision in implementing. Still, Gosling realized near-rock star status
amongst the "geekerati" and could fill venues throughout the world with
developers and users eager to hear what he had to say.
But, obviously, something did not fit with the Oracle move. Perhaps
Gosling ran into one of those situations he could simply not "put up
with."
Gosling, the Sun logo, the
Java coffee cup icon and the
Duke mascot all immediately come to mind when you think of Java. Oracle owns Sun, the cup and Duke. But Gosling has moved on.
He is by far the biggest defection from Oracle of the former Sun
staff to date. Tim Bray, a co-creator of X M L, and Zack Urlocker, who
ran engineering and marketing at MySQL also left early in the
transition of Sun into Oracle.
But where will Gosling wind up? I hear IBM is looking for some smart
engineers with serious Java talent. And Microsoft could always use some
proven software architects. Then there's Google. Of the three, Google
seems a likely best bet. But I just don't see that just
now.
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