First of all, though Oracle and Sun's business may overlap in many areas such as Database, Development Platform, App Server Platform etc., but the internals of the companies are very different. Sun is very engineering focused and R&D company, where as Oracle is more business focused and superb player on how to stay on top of the market.
Java, one of the most popular languages of our age (for people who are born in late seventies or early eighties) was able to churn in many developers and strong community as it is free. A number of products coming from Sun's stable are actually free, and for this sheer openness, I have tremendous respect for Sun Microsystems.
However, I am not sure how the game is going to be changed in the near future. Here are again the some of the similar questions that are being raised in my mind as I had raised while looking at Sun-IBM deal.
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Above all, the most important questions are:
1. Will Java be free now?
Java is one of the best languages to learn as it is free. The beauty lies in opening up source code and changing it the way you want or seeing a reference implementation.
2. Will MySQL come with a free edition?
I learned the basics of SQL with MySQL. MySQL when acquired by Sun was fine as still we have that free option. But now...
3. Can I use NetBeans for Free?
4. Can I use the various technologies provided by the Sun, i.e., J2EE and Co. will be
free?
Granted that J2EE is heavy, a lot of memory issues, not much developer friendly etc. But then, even the hardcore adapters of framework like Hibernate or Spring can not deny the importance of J2EE. In fact, I am sure, it inspired them and guided them to write a better and simpler application.
5. What will happen to the brand value of Sun and its various educational programs?
Here I am having a direct hit. We propagate Sun Certification from the bottom of the pyramid (SCJP, not exactly bottom though) to the pinnacle, i.e., SCEA. How they are going to be evaluated now?
6. Can I used the Sun App Server with a free trial?
7. Will the brand value of Sun is going to nonexistent - say in next 6 months?
BEA systems developed WebLogic and IFlex develoed FlexCube. But now they are part and parcel of Oracle (and in a way rightfully so). But the brand value has vanished. Personally, I would like to see Sun continue the way it was.
8. What will happen to all the community work that has been develoepd so far on Java?
Java is a 12/13 year language and a lot of community websites, development, discussions have come on top it. Oracle is not known to give freeware (liteware != freeware) and how Java is going fare in this?
9. What will happen to the all the framework that have been developed on Java?
Java is not only free, but it also allowed a lot of tools and technologies to come top it which are free, like Tomcat (and Co.), ECS, JMeter and many more. What will happen to them?
10. Will all the Java developed migrate to PHP now?
PHP is pretty much server side and simpler than JSP. Looking at the way PHP is evolving and being adopted by various XAMP frameworks (LAMP, WAMP, MAMP etc), I think PHP will be the next best choice if not Java. But a lot of capabilities in Java/J2EE based APIs are not part of any robust framework so far (Transaction, Messaging, Connector, Persistence etc)
11. What will happen to the open source phenomenon?
Opensource are the true friends of a new high tech company with minimal money. It helps and lets the world know that if you can design, architect and produce a solution which solves real problem, people will buy from you.
Overall, I am a bit paranoid, a bit sad and truly hope Sun continues in the same vein as it was earlier. But will it hold good? I am doubtful.
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