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Sun's JRuby Team Jumps Ship To Engine Yard
itwbennett writes "'To be honest, we had no evidence that Oracle wouldn't support JRuby, but we also didn't have any evidence that they would,' said Charles Nutter, explaining why Sun's entire 3-member JRuby team will be leaving the company to work for application hosting company Engine Yard. Nutter called getting hired by Sun about two-and-a-half years ago and being given the chance to work full time on JRuby a 'dream come true.' And said that the decision to leave Sun came down to making sure 'JRuby will get to the next level.'"
Quite right. In a few months' time they could all be out of a job with no prospects when Oracle has an inevitable cull and eventually realises they don't want them. However, they have the opportunity to jump ship to an expanding company now who will directly rely on and need the technology they are developing. They would be stupid not to jump ship to that in the current climate.
...is that now EngineYard has full-time folks working on Rubinious, JRuby, and Ruby 1.8.6. It's Ruby implementation central over there.
The Army reading list
I'll one up that: Based on my experience in several software engineering companies (video games), my policy is now to find a new job ASAP when your company gets bought out, even if they DO say they want to keep you! (That being standard operating procedure -- not hearing that is the equivalent of an immediate pink slip.)
Engineers can only really advance by switching companies. Definitely best to jump ship when some people are talking about you and you have some leverage, no doubt about it.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes