Ever since news broke about the surprising takeover of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, people have started discussing the future of some of the important platforms in this context. This is what I think:
The Future of Java
Oracle is not traditionally a framework platform company. Sun, on the other hand, is the creator of one of the most widely used application frameworks – Java. So what happens once this takeover is done?
- Oracle continues innovating in Java: This is fairly possible – however may be unlikely. After all for Oracle, Java is more of a application platform that they use rather than something they contribute to.
- Oracle kills off Java slowly: This is very unlikely as they do have something that is used by a large number in the developer community and is also a competitor to Microsoft’s .NET.
- Oracle makes Java completely open source under the GPL*: this is something that I see as very likely. Not only will they win a ton of brownie points with the FOSS folks, but to a great extent get rid of the development and maintenance overhead of keeping Java fully internal.
* Java is quite open sourced already. However as the FAQ states, there are still a bunch of things that remain to be opened.
The Future of MySQL
This is where I see more of an issue. After all, MySQL was a competitor in the same space (or at least, that’s what MySQL followers claim). So will Oracle continue to develop and support MySQL? If they do, not only will they have different “divisions” competing with each other in the same space, but also will need to provide an “official” migration path forward.
As I see it, MySQL as a “brand” will probably go away in a couple of years. Oracle will incorporate some of its features into the lower end database platforms it currently offers. Open Source “forks” of the last MySQL version to be released will come up and try to take up the place let vacant by its departure.
Others
Solaris, though now fully open source, has not really got the momentum of something like Linux. And I don’t see Oracle changing that too much. I think Oracle will downplay the Solaris significance and slowly end it mercifully. However…
Sun’s cloud computing initiative on Solaris combined with Java and the Oracle database make it a powerful stack – quite enough to compete with the Amazon and Microsoft Azure platforms.
It’ll be interesting to note the reactions from companies like IBM, HP, Microsoft and others to see what they think of this as well.
Tags:
java,
mysql,
oracle,
microsoft,
cloud
Categories:
Development