Oracle's Sun Acquisition Spells Uncertainty for Java, Database Developers

Oracle's Sun Acquisition Spells Uncertainty for Java, Database Developers

 

Oracle's stunning agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems will reshape the landscape of tools and platforms for Java and database developers.

"The question now on the table for developers is which pieces and parts are going to be supported going forward.

 

JavaFX is a good example. Will Oracle want to be in the rich-media, Java plug-in space? What about Sun's IDE? Should I be continuing to develop with NetBeans? Should I continue to develop for OpenOffice? What are Oracle's intentions with regard to the future of these technologies? Which APIs will be supported?

 

Another Sun technology with an uncertain future under the Oracle aegis is the Java EE-based GlassFish application server. GlassFish, created by Sun and then open sourced, has its fans in the developer community, but it becomes redundant in the Oracle product lineup. "Oracle has all of BEA and its own app servers”. "Does it need to support another one?"

 

There is even more debate as to what Oracle's acquisition of Sun will mean for the MySQL Open Source Database Platform, which Sun acquired last year for $1 billion. "MySQL has made significant progress in the past five years toward becoming an enterprise-capable database, and there is a doubt that Oracle will want to compete with it at that level."

 

Java developer Dag Blakstad, senior consultant at Oslo-based Webstep AS, is taking the acquisition with a grain of salt. "I'm hoping for the best," he said. "The MySQL community is very big, and I would be very upset if Oracle did anything bad with MySQL. I'm a little worried about Oracle doing proprietary things to Java. Oracle is sometimes a company that likes to do things their own way, not following standards.

 

 

Potential Benefits

 

The change of management for the technologies that survive the acquisition is almost certainly a positive for developers.

"Oracle has been dying to get its hands on Java which will make it even more competitive with Microsoft," he said. "The good news for developers is that it's now in the hands of a real software company."

 

 

Reference: Link

 

 

Thanks & Regards,

Arun Manglick || Senior Tech Lead