Disclaimer: There are no facts after this point. It is all what if scenario / made up / completely unfounded speculation.

What ifs…
What if google had a significant investment in Java, but no license for it?
What if google knew that Java was an important differentiator for themselves?
What if google wanted to grow the Java community to their benefit?
What if google had the biggest names in the Java ecosystem (Gosling, Bloch, Bray, Haase, Russell, Norbye,…)?
What if google realized that Java was open source (GPL)?
What if google forked Java and called it something else (Gava)?
Would the Java community follow?

Oracle owns the rights to the Java brand and the Java TCK (certification). Java’s standards have been the driving force behind holding the community together. There is enormous power in the Java standards from an adoption perspective (think John Nash). Compatibility has been the hallmark of Java…

I cut my teeth as a Java programmer from the earliest days of Java (pre 1.0). So, I followed Sun quite closely through the years. As I watched the Google I/O keynotes, I was struck by how much Vic Gundotra sounded like a cross between John Gage and Scott McNealy.

Sun, used to make a habit out of cracking one liners about Microsoft. Google has done the same with Apple.

“Sun Is Not Proprietary, Just As IBM Is Not Bankrupt”

Replace IBM with Apple and Sun with Google…sound familiar?

As a I think about it, the comparison does not stop there. Sun stumbled into a fantastic market that was out of it’s core competency. They decided to use their cash cow, hardware, to fund this new business. Google has entered into the phone business. There is money to be made their, but the development and support efforts are largely funded by search revenue. Sound similar?

If you look back in history, Sun released and managed Java as free software (yes it was not open til later). For years, they funded that effort with their hardware business. Eventually, they were…

Anyone know?

There is nothing revolutionary here. Chrome is clearly faster on my macbook pro (i7, ssd hd). The only area where Safari 5 outperformed was in DOM manipulation…which is interesting. This should make it handle some in-application processing faster. Unfortunately, it may not be noticeable because Chrome will do the initial layout and the data processing much faster.

Embedded systems are becoming ever more powerful and affordable. Check out the GuruPlug, which is scheduled for release in a couple of weeks and has amazing specs: Linux 2.6 1.2 GHz ARM processor with 512 MB DRAM 512 MB Flash, Ethernet, WiFi, 2 x USB, Bluetooth, GPIO Low power consumption and small footprint Java and OSGi available from distributor Retail price: US $99 (standard version)

link: The GuruPlug and more: An Embedded Java Update « Across the Universe

Man, this is in the price range to make playing with it fun!

Looks like QT is trying to answer the uncertainty that JavaFX has created for Swing programmers. Specifically, JavaFX is out there and has been named the air apparent to swing. However, JavaFX does not have a full component suite yet (table…cmon guys). So, with people knowing they will need to switch, but having some uncertainty about that switch, folks are a little lost. QT, looks like they are trying to position themselves as a good traditional gui toolkit that can be a refuge for swing programmers that don’t want to move to JavaFX.

Fun and Games

It’s been a while since I looked at it in any depth. However, this time I took the time to look at the trends. Using a simple linear interpolation, it looks as if Java will reach VB’s current level of irrelevance in about 11 years.

Now, VB is not irrelevant, it is still widely used for a large number of purposes. However, it is widely considered to be a dated or legacy language. If you accept that, and oracle does not radically alter the trend, Java will be in the same place in about 2020.

What is more interesting, is that there is not a clear heir apparent. There are several dynamic languages (including php — is that a language or a toolkit?), that have a positive slope. However, none seem to be approaching a breakout that would offset the losses that Java, C, and C++ are having. (I wonder if that represents a diversification among languages or a flaw in the survey.) Anyway, I think it is interesting to look at the trends from a career perspective. It appears that we are in store for a language trend change in…

The recent comments from Steve Jobs regarding Adobe might well be the first sign of a “cold war” between the two companies. Apple would be already preparing and developing applications to compete directly with Adobe’s solutions, leading to open warfare. Cupertino would also be developing a software that could compete with Flash and Dreamweaver, entirely based on HTML 5.0. Beside Aperture X which should be released soon, Apple might also be working to develop a solution similar to Photoshop, a high-end Pro-oriented solution. We do not know further details about those applications being developed as it is either hidden from view or just starting.

link: Hardmac.com : Le “Macbidouille” in English – Apple and Adobe: The Roots and Reasons Behind Today’s Situation

The article goes into great depth about the souring relationship between the two companies and how that has taken place over time. I found myself wondering if that is what happened to Java on the Mac. At one point, Steve embraced Java. He proclaimed that it was going to be a center piece of Apple’s strategy. Given the lack of client side focus (at the…