Future of Java

With the recent aquisition of Sun by Oracle, the future of Java is getting debated vigorously. It's also getting clear that Oracle's interest on Sun is more on the hardware stack than on the software products (Takes them closer to IBM). With the recent resignation of James Gosling it has given further suspicion to the intentions of Oracle and its commitment on Java.

But does Java depends on the survival of Sun or I would say survival of Sun Java inside the umbrella of Oracle. There is an old saying that the effectiveness of the leadership is decided by the fact that the absence of leadership doen not impacts the functioning of the group. In that regard, we should congratulate to James Gosling and the initial set of people in Sun, who mentored Java. They have done a wonderful job of building an ecosystem around Java and let the ecosystem drive the future. In that context, I think Java is going to survive and thrive, no matter what happens to individual companies. The pillar of this process is JCP (Java Community Process). Yes they are political in nature and do tend to slow the process but than at the end of the day, humankind has realized that democracy is the best way to govern inspite of its inefficiencies. And we have seen that the Java as a language and as an ecosystem has become better only with time.

Considering the strong ecosystem in which Java exists today, it seems difficult that the indifference of Oracle will harm Java. Though I feel that Oracle does not have that kind of intentions, considering the business focussed company Oracle is. They know that the Java is one of the most important language in which major work is getting done. (ok..ok...Please accept my respect for all the other languages, I am just quoting http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html.

If at all Java language will go out of fashion or for that matter any language it has to be a pradigm shift that will makes these languages obselete. Than no amount of marketing/politiking is going to make it survive. Considering the momentum that is behind the Java, it seems that it still has a bright future ahead.