"Father of Java" Resigns From Sun/Oracle

Thrashing Rage writes "James Gosling has confirmed he is leaving Sun/Oracle: '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.'"

Comments

One of Many

[WrongSizeGlass]

Several of the biggest names at Sun have departed since the Oracle merger. The memories of Sun are fading fast. IBM probably would have been a better suitor for Sun than Oracle, but now it's all over but the crying.

Re:One of Many

[Runaway1956]

I dunno. Let's just say that our views are quite different. As a home user without any certifications, I manage to keep my Linux boxes running just fine using free support, available online, and in the documentation. Microsoft boxes cost a good deal of money to keep running. I hear from friends and neighbors and coworkers all the time, that they've taken their machine back to the shop for this, or for that, and forked over another hundred dollars or more.

Add up the costs of the OS license, a decent AV, all the software they purchase, and those unending trips to a shop to have viruses removed, recover lost data, upgrade this or that, and sometimes to reinstall the operating system. And, don't forget that with each trip, the tech/salesrep invariably tries to sell a newer, more powerful computer.

Cost. I'll take the free stuff every time.

So, a kernel update breaks something that I rely on. Big deal, I can roll back the kernel. A driver update breaks something else, I just roll back to the old driver. Yeah, I sometimes use the CLI. I'm not proficient with it, but a quick Google always finds help with whatever. The biggest thing about googling for help, is to use the advanced search, and find RECENT articles and posts about my problem. Trying to use a solution for a similar problem that occured in 2001 is unlikely to work today.

In short, I can build a nice computer for about a thousand bucks, and run everything I've ever needed or wanted to run for absolutely nothing. My neighbors buy computers for $1500 and up to as much as $3000, and they keep forking out money.

To me, it makes no sense.

While Enterprise' costs are multiplied exponentially, their savings are exponentially greater when they use open source. A large organization might spend ten million dollars on Microsoft license - while full Linux support is available for mere hundreds of thousands. And, as time goes by after upgrading to Linus, support becomes less and less of an issue - the enterprise might get away with purchasing minimal support packages "just in case" something serious breaks.

Whatever - I'll be a Linux and Open Source supporter forever. Unless, of course, something markedly better than Linux comes along. Unlikely, but possible. I keep hoping though!

Re:One of Many

[itlurksbeneath]

There were people that Microsoft lured away from DEC because MS needed operating system writers for NT. I hear some of the internals of the kernel resemble VMS quite a bit (even some symbols in common).

Re:Come on, you make money on high-end too

[bennomatic]

I think you're right. I work for a company which builds database driven software, and while we always have our eyes out for newer and better solutions, people I've talked to on the DEV team clearly feel that if you're looking to deliver millions of transactions per hour, Oracle's still the king of the hill.