Java Creator Gosling Quits Oracle

James Gosling, who created the Java language while at Sun Microsystems, has resigned from Sun’s new owners Oracle, after assuring developers that Java is safe in Oracle’s hands.

Gosling came up with the idea for the machine-independent Java language and the Java platform in the early ’90s and Sun introduced it in 1995. Last month, Oracle finally acquired Sun after a long legal process, and Gosling reassured Java developers of the software’s future at Oracle. In a blog post, Gosling said he resigned from Oracle on 2  April.

No reasons given for departure

Gosling did not give a reason for his departure, other than to say that frankness about the situation might “do more harm than good.”

Said Gosling:

“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.”

In an interview with Gosling at last year’s JavaOne, I asked him if there were any scenarios where he could see himself not being at Oracle. His reply was “absolutely.”

Actually, the exchange was as follows:

DKT: It’s definitely the end of an era for me because I’ve really enjoyed covering Sun.

JG: Well, Sun is now a viral body in a strange host. So we’ll see.

DKT: Do you think you’ll be here?

JG: I have no way to predict that.

DKT: Well, there are things you will and won’t put up with.

JG: Absolutely. So I can imagine future histories where I’m gone. And I can imagine future histories where I’m not. Right now, no data.

However, Gosling weathered an initial transition period as Oracle began the work of integrating the Sun portfolio into its cache of software booty, which includes the industry’s dominant database platform.

And in March, Gosling delivered a keynote at TheServerSide Java Symposium (TSSJS) telling the audience that Java was in good hands with Oracle and would continue to enjoy its position as one of the preeminent enterprise IT platforms well into the future.

Gosling’s face became synonymous with Java. And while he enjoyed accolades from Java’s success, he also took the brunt of criticism from developers on points of discontent – many of which he had no real decision in implementing. Still, Gosling realised near-rock star status amongst the “geekerati” and could fill venues throughout the world with developers and users eager to hear what he had to say.

Sun staff leave Oracle

Gosling is by far the biggest defection from Oracle of the former Sun staff to date. Tim Bray, a co-creator of X M L, and Zack Urlocker, who ran engineering and marketing at MySQL also left early in the transition of Sun into Oracle, and Sun open source chief Simon Phipps left in March

As well as giving no reasons for his departure, Gosling has given no hint where he will go next, but possibilities may include IBM, Google, or even Microosft.

Oracle announced its intention to buy Sun Microsystems in April 2009, but faced months of legal wrangles, in particular objections in Europe over the fate of the open source MySQL database. Oracle has run sessions for Sun users in the US, as well as Britain and elsewhere, reassuring them that Sun products are safe at Oracle, and is planning to address MySQL concerns this week at the O’Reilly MySQL conference.