sun

The Sun software diaspora

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:16:09 -0400

InfoWorld's Paul Krill has meticulously put together a list of Sun folk who have fled the company since the merger with Oracle was completed. If you're interested in Java -- or Sun's software generally, much of which was to one degree or another built around the Java brand -- then what will really jump out at you from the list is that they're all software people.

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Yet another Cloud startup with (genealogical) Java ties

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:14:20 -0400

A new cloud-oriented startup came out of stealth mode today, changing its name from the inscrutable VMOps to the much friendly, if 2001-ish Cloud.com in the process. While it isn't really a Java story the way VMForce and WebLogic Suite Virtualization Option are, Cloud.com does have a genealogical relationship with Java, as The Register details.

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Java speaking for itself

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:54:51 -0400

In the light of the delayed Sun-Oracle merger (and see the New York Times Dealbook blog for a brutal analysis of how the deal was structured to put Sun in a poor position in case of just such delays), there's been a lot of anxiety about Java's future. With the companies unable to really comment on future plans, of course, this has led to anxious seizing on any little tidbit to guide the way.

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The Sun-Oracle merger is going great!

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:59:59 -0400

So in case you've (a) been under a rock and (b) have difficulty recognizing sarcasm, that headline is sarcastic. The Oracle-Sun merger is, in fact, not going well. Let's review all the ways it didn't go well this week!

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A dying Sun shows how the Java brand was wasted

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:20:27 -0400

If, like me, you have a Google Alert for "Java" in your RSS reader, you'd know that today's big news was the release of the latest version of the Sun Java Communications Suite. If, unlike me, you don't pay attention to the minutia of the Java ecosystem, you might think that this is an exciting communications product based somehow on Sun's flagship Java technology.

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EU move a "gift" to Oracle?

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:47:37 -0400

CNet's Matt Asay has a pretty provocative post on his blog today, saying that the EU's decision is a perverse gift to Oracle, like so: the delay will cause more and more customers and employees to flee Sun (a trend that's already happening), leaving Oracle to declare that, once the merger is approved, its original offer price no longer reflects Sun's diminished value, causing Sun to either accede to a humiliating reduction in price, or for the deal to flounder altogether (with Oracle swooping in to buy

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EU to examine Sun-Oracle merger; limbo continues

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:22:49 -0400

Well, as predicted, the European Commission has chosen to invoke its right to study the Oracle-Sun deal, with the fate of MySQL being the reason explicitly cited as the origin of the hold-up. Java watchers will have to stew for a few more months of limbo over a non-Java-related issue arising from an acquisition by Sun last year that may or may not have been a good idea at the time.

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The end of Sun: Not with a bang, but with a whimper

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:15:08 -0400

If all goes well, by the time I put my next post up Sun's shareholders will have voted the company out of existence. Sun is sputtering into the sunset, revealing a a worse than expected loss in its final quarter as an independent company.

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JavaOne hangover over; commence Oracle-related panic

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:27:03 -0400

JavaOne was full of happiness and fun; to read the many blog posts of the folks who were there, you understand why these trade shows are worth it to so many people. There really is a sense of community that comes when you get together with thousands of strangers interesed in the same things you are. And Larry Ellison even showed up to make comforting noises about Java's future!

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Project Vector: The biggest Java news that nobody cares about

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:51 -0400

A funny thing happened yesterday: Jonathan Schwartz offered on his blog a preview of something called Project Vector, which will soon be known as the Java Store. The quick version goes something like this: You know how first Google and then Microsoft had browser search toolbars distributed via the Java runtime? Well, soon anyone with a Java or JavaFX app will be able to do the same.

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The once and future Sun merger drama

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:50:46 -0400

The New York Times has a doozy of a story today on the drama that laid behind Sun's decision to merge with Oracle, which process already had quite a bit of public drama in the first place. We all know that IBM courted Sun, then lowered its buying price enough to back away, before being absorbed by Oracle. The whole tale is told in Sun's regulatory filing, and is couched in security by insufficiently obscure obscurity.

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Oracle, Java, and open source

Josh Fruhlinger — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:24:11 -0400

The first big open-source-related stink has emerged in the wake of the Oracle-Sun merger ... and it involves MySQL, and the possible forking thereof by the original developers. The Java community has not been as quick to process developments, and to be sure the position of Java as a Sun homegrown product rather than a recent and somewhat uncomfortable acquisition is different. But Java users are starting to suss out their positions.

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Oracle to put Java at its heart

Josh Fruhlinger — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:53:50 -0400

Boy, it sure was polite of Sun and Oracle to wait until the day I got back from my vacation to announce their merger, wasn't it? I fulminated gloomily about this possibility before I left, but now that I've spent a day absorbing the news, I'm ... slightly less gloomy.

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What now for Sun -- and Java?

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:08:26 -0400

So, the seemingly inevitable has been evaded: Sun and IBM will not be merging after all, with the deal foundering non IBM's reduced appraisal of the company's worth and discomfort with executive buyout clauses.

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Fanning out on the JVM

Josh Fruhlinger — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:46:02 -0400

I held off on posting yesterday because rumor had it that the Sun-IBM deal would close today, but it looks like another day has passed without that Godot-like event finally arriving.

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Sun isn't open enough for some

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:00:12 -0400

Sun of course talks a big game on open source, both as a company as a whole and where Java is concerned, but it seems that many in the community are getting more and more fed up with what they see as blocks in that road. Some recent comments on the subject:

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Would IBM loosen Java up or keep it tight?

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:11:49 -0400

There is still no word on the IBM-Sun merger rumors, but folks I hear from seem to be operating on the assumption that it's a done deal. IBM is supposedly spending this week scouring Sun's legal agreements to make sure that there's nothing there that Big Blue would find unpalatable or indigestible; the Wall Street Journal's coverage of that process implies that Sun's software licensing terms are an important area of that review.

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IBM-Sun merger rumors roundup: What it means for Java

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:04:18 -0400

It's day two of the furious IBM-Sun merger speculation, and there's still no official word -- which in some ways says that this is less likely that it seemed yesterday, because surely rumors of this magnitude wouldn't be allowed to float around aimlessly for so long, wreaking havoc on stock prices? Nevertheless, some of the coverage of the rumor today finally began to give Java its due in this scenario; many in both the mainstream and tech press are seeing how important Java is to IBM, and why it might be central to Big Blue's motivations. Here's some of the high points:

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Sun-IBM merger -- is this really happening?

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:48:44 -0400

Some lingering illnesses in my household kept me from getting a blog post in yesterday -- which is just as well, as it gives me more Java To Go energy to tackle the rumors swirling this morning about a potential merger of Sun by Big Blue. Yes, that's right: after months of seemingly idle speculation that someone -- anyone -- would take over the ailing company, significantly less idle speculation has hit two very major news sources this morning.

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Why Sun won't give Harmony the seal of approval

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:43:33 -0400

My last blog post, on the long-running Sun-Apache Software Foundation spat that resurfaced when it came time to vote on Java EE 6, attracted a bit of interest. Some off-the-record sources chatted with me about it and I now feel like I have a bit more of a sense of what it's all about. Here's the punchline: The dispute between Sun and the ASF over a Java SE implementation, which resulted in a no vote on Java EE? At its heart, it's about making an end run around Java ME.

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The long-running Sun-Apache dispute

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:52:43 -0400

Apache Software Foundation member Stephen Coleborne, speaking personally, quite rightly took me to task on my post from last week about the long-standing beef with Sun that led to the ASF's no vote on Java EE 6. Basically, I misunderstood exactly what the dispute was about; my excuse is that the real germ of dispute on this has been actively hidden from view by the participants. As Coleborne put it, "Many people think this is some minor, esoteric discussion of no importance. They couldn't be more wrong, but since the rest of the information in this dispute is private, I can't tell you why."

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More potential Sun tie-ups

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:00:38 -0500

There was some rumbling this week as Sun and HP hyped an upcoming announcement -- would this presage the long-imagined and dreaded Sun merger? Well, no; as it turned out it was just another boring Solaris server distribution partnership; if we needed any more evidence that it would not lead to Hewlett-CompSun, Jonathan Schwartz called his blog post on the subject Live Free Or Die.

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Why isn't Java cool? Or, programmers are people too

Josh Fruhlinger — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:42:49 -0500

You know what you never hear anyone in the construction trade say? "Hammers are so hot right now," or "screwdrivers are the new black," or "I love this wrench! It's so cool!" Yet so much of the computing industry is focused on which particular languages, platforms, and technologies are cool or hip. And, fifteen years after it emerged from Sun's labs to wow the industry, Java is definitely in decline, at least by that metric.

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Two roads diverge in the Java GUI wood: More Swing vs. JavaFX

Josh Fruhlinger — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:04:39 -0500

We've discussed here before the brewing battle between Swing and JavaFX for the hearts and minds of desktop Java GUI developers. Will the two technologies develop in parallel, each with their own areas of specialization, or will JavaFX come to supplant Swing -- and if the latter occurs, will it be an organized and open effort, or will it happen surreptitiously? There are a couple of blog posts that recently went up on the subject:

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Hail to the (open source) chief?

Josh Fruhlinger — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:13:49 -0500

A new U.S. president was inaugurated yesterday, elected on a platform of change. One intriguing change that could come in the tech realm is hinted at by a request put to Sun co-founder Scott McNealy: the Obama administration has asked him to prepare a paper on open source software for the US government.

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