The question of whether you'll be heading to JavaOne is more relevant than ever, now that Oracle's decision to sue Google over Java has so many Java developers roiled up. The spectacle of Larry Ellison giving the keynote speech will certainly be worth the price of admission, not least to see how hostile the audience gets. There's also been some cancellations of rather exciting tech sessions, like one on Scala and Clojure and another on JavaFX animation.

If that all bums you out, Software and Support Media is planning an American version of its Java Apache XML conference, with an inside source saying that the company is quite happy to poach developers disillusioned with Oracle. In fact, skipping JavaOne may be one of the easiest ways to hit Oracle in the pocketbook, as the conference was quite the moneymaker for Sun in its day, and still costs pretty penny to attend.

I imagine that most of the people who usually attend JavaOne will still show up, though. Computer programming as a discipline is particularly prone to people working alone in dark rooms, and a lot of people really enjoy the sense of community they get there. I think before people give all that up, they'll want to see for themselves how the vibe changes under new management. Keep a close eye on the commentary emerging from next week's conference, though, to see how 2011 might go.