The Next Big Java Language; my $0.02

Time to to add my $0.02....

What is the Next Big JVM Language going to be?

I've been watching the whole evolution of alternative languages on the JVM for a few years now. Long enough to start tracing the hype around the different languages.

Yet none of these languages are really mainstream, despite their apparent advantages.

I think the reason for this has absolutely nothing to do with the technical features (or lack thereof) of any of these languages.

I think the NBJL will be the one that large organisation or group of organisations with enough clout and deep enough pockets is actually willing to go out and effectively market both to decision makers and developers.

No doubt Java did strike a chord with mainstream developers, but quite honestly was that more to do with Sun's aggressive marketing campaign or because it of it's many technical merits?

Oracle and the Sun exodus

So Oracle has had quite a good quarter, with profit jumping 24%.

What makes this interesting, is that Oracle claimed that $400 million worth of profit came from the sale of Sun gear, which is quite interesting especially that before the sale Sun hadn't really been making money even in the good times.

At the same time James Gosling is comforting the hordes of former Sun employees leaving Oracle.

Quite honestly though, I think the whole exodus of Sun employees leaving is being overblown by the media.

When you buy a company that is floundering like Sun was, you generally have to take drastic measures in order to bring that company back from brink, and drastic measures in the corporate world normally means doing lots of nasty things.

Oracle has a reputation for being to integrate companies it purchases quite well, so it's therefore fair to say that they are pretty good at doing said nasty things.

Now to take it a step further, Sun was not in a fantastic place when Oracle bought it, no doubt it needed some rather drastic measures to get things going again, so I can imagine Oracle had to do some really nasty things.

As a result you are going to get many people who leave, many of whom are good people who you don't want to lose, but it's unfortunately par for the course.

To be totally honest It didn't even bother me when James Gosling left Oracle.

Consider that he has pretty much had no publicly visible direct influence on core Java since it got handed over to the JCP which was 12 years ago.

Now don't get me wrong, He's left a big hole in Java for Oracle, and I'm hoping that he stays involved in Java, heck, maybe now he can contribute more directly to Java and the community than he could while he was working for Sun.