“Father of Java” Resigns from Sun/Oracle
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Saturday, April 10th, 2010 |  #Tags: , , , ,

This would, perhaps, be the second most shocking/sad news after the resignation of Jonathan (former Sun CEO). I’m sad and upset after hearing the confirmed news that James Gosling will be leaving Sun/Oracle.

James has been a Father for the Java community and a great innovator in the  software industry. The final words appear on his blog:

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.

Without a doubt, this has been an aftermath of the Sun-Oracle Merger, and he doesn’t seem to be happy with the level of freedom he had been getting lately. From what has been heard, he was not convinced with the Oracle’s strategies for the future of Java.

His contributions to Open source were huge even before he stepped into Java. In 1983, James Gosling wrote a version of emacs, and before joining Sun Microsystems he built a multi-processor version of Unix while at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as several compilers and mail systems. Since 1984, Gosling has been with Sun Microsystems, and is known as the father of the Java programming language.

All that can be said is that he will be missed, but I’ve no doubt that his contributions (wherever he goes) will continue to innovate the Java, like he has done it in the past. Every company would hunt to hire him and I would love to see Google, IBM (leaders in Java) watching closely on it.

The Java community will never forget his contributions, and he’ll forever be a remembered as a “Father who drove the Java World”.

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Category: programming
#Tags: , , , , | Author: Tarandeep Singh
  • jony
    in respone to
    itsnotfamous (unregistered),

    mariaDB is a branch of MySQL. developed by the same creator as MySQL - Micael Widenius. (fun fact: He has 2 daugters: My and Maria :))
  • joJava
    I’m not too worried, JAVA specification development is a complex process that is done by the wider community; the process might be influenced/controlled by sun Microsystems but still we individual developers and big organizations like Apache, IBM, RedHat, Google … etc have a great influence on java/EE development, I must admit that the best JDK out there in the market is SUN hotspot and it is free! but I’m hoping that Google will step in and create their own or adopt the openJDK project, they did a great job with the V8 JavaScript compiler so there is no reason for not doing a better job with java hotspot

    Cheer up, Java is here to stay for a longtime to come.
  • rehzon
    Only if SUN had merged with IBM :( there would have been hope for a better future for Java. These Oracle guys are not really software engineers, they just buy stuff and then spread buzz words like "fusion". They do not know anything about writing good software.

    The day oracle bought SUN was indeed a very sad day for me. I really admired the people at SUN, they were brilliant people, truly computer scientists, and knew what they were doing (sob)
  • My guess is that he'll head up north, to Redmond, WA.
  • Bassel Nassif
    I'm so shocked. I don't know what to say
  • Bassel Nassif
    It's shocking news. I still can't believe what I'm reading. The father of Java has left his son alone.
  • Dennis
    Well it's not a big problem if you ask me. It's what Darwin says: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Apparently James Gosling didn't plan to adapt, so the only option left was to resign. Nobody is irreplaceble. The nice part is that he is free again to let his creative brain do some new great stuff. Now wait and let's see what he comes up with...
  • Chris
    Would you like "IBM Fellow" on your business card?
  • yarrrrr
    Who cares... it's time for someone else to lead...
  • jony
    Java will not die. Probably he will go on some parallel java or so. look at the guy who left from mysql (also bought by SUN who was bought by ORACLE). now he is in the soon to be famous mariaDB.
    he will go on new things after a break. will be in same position as I: sw engineer looking for jobs in america. the difference: I'm not american but European.
  • itsnotfamous
    what's mariaDB?
  • Bob
    Work for IBM, somewhere that will appreciate your history with Java
  • Jack Chir
    IBM ?!? Are you kidding ? Who wants to work for this bunch of a**holes ?
  • Sam Palmisano (not really)
    Its a good company to work for
  • Gosling hasn't "controlled" Java for a very long time. Even when I worked at JavaSoft 12 years ago, his role was more or less advisory. Others made the key decisions.
  • xavier
    Damn! I fear the future of Java. If he loses the control over it, things can get shaky
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