The guys at The Basement Coders had a great chat with James Gosling, the father of Java. Gosling discusses his feelings on Oracle, Sun, IBM, NoSQL, and lots more.
Although even Gosling doesn’t know where Oracle is going to take Java, there is plenty in this interview to add to the drama.
How about in the direction of games? 😉
I’m with the team behind jMonkeyEngine, a 3D game development suite. So prepare for a shameless plug.
We recently nominated for Packt’s Open Source Awards under the “Graphics Software” category. A top placement could really mean a lot to us, as we feel like there are a lot of talented Java developers who would be very happy to know about us, but we just don’t have the funds to actively advertise ourselves.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could lend a hand in spreading the word. If you’d rather not approve this comment I’ll not take offense.
Sincerely,
~ Erlend Sogge Heggen
I do believe that there is a lot of power in Java the language, and Java the platform. While generally the overhead of the JVM is insignificant, the area of high-performance 3D rendering is the exception. If you can beat this, then you’ve got a great product.
But, the future of Java the product … well, Oracle scares the hell out of me. I can only hope that someone successfully reproduces the entire Java platform in a way that violates no patents, and names it something else to avoid copyright issues, and garners significant community support to become the driving force behind ongoing development.
I hear that. Oracle must be a little shaky after the OpenOffice project broke off. I don’t know the exact details, but it sounded to me like the decision was not Oracle’s to make.
I’m with James Gosling all the way:
http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/let_larry_know_you_care
I think it is pretty clear that Oracle does not have the faintest clue how to do open source business. I don’t know the steps that need to be taken in order to “liberate” Java, but I’ll be sure to have its back as soon as I see the wheels are in motion.
/ And hey, thanks for not taking offense of my little self-advertisement up there =)