James Gosling Resigns from Oracle

Posted by Charles Humble on Apr 10, 2010

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Architecture & Design,

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Java ,

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Sun Microsystems ,

Oracle

James Gosling has announced via his new blog that he resigned from Oracle a week ago (April 2nd).

Generally credited as the inventor of the Java programming language, Gosling created the original design for Java and implemented the first compiler and virtual machine for it. Gosling, who will be 55 this year, had been with Sun Microsystems since 1984. Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in January this year, following five months of investigation by the European Commission's Competition Commissioner.

Prior to joining Sun Gosling wrote a version of emacs (gosmacs), and while at Carnegie Mellon University he built a multi-processor version of Unix, as well as a number of compilers and mail systems.

He doesn't yet have a new job, describing himself as "blissfully unemployed" on his bio. On his blog he states "I don't know what I'm going to do next, other than take some time off before I start job hunting. "

 

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   oh boy..

   by leo de blaauw

   Well that doesnt bode very well for Java at Oracel in general... On the other hand the java appstore stuff James demoed at devoxx last year didnt exactly made me jump up from my seat either...

   Reply

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   Java will be fine

   by peter lin

   Java is mature and doesn't die because a single person leaves a company. Once a product is mature, it's good for people to move on and do new things. That's the best way to keep things fresh. My bias opinion. I'm sure others will disagree.

   Reply

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   Re: Java will be fine

   by Christopher Brind

   I agree Peter, though there is something sad about his departure.

   Reply

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   Re: Java will be fine

   by Shimon Amit

   Agreed, though these are part of the "shifting winds" in Javaland - for the better I believe. The JVM is now the future, and new, innovative technologies will continue mushrooming at it's roots, serving different programming paradigms and market segments.
   
   There will be more fallout up ahead with Oracle's aggressive merging, integration and consolidation strategies. Mikos, Schwartz, Gossling... these are just the beginning.

   Reply

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   Once again, thanks James!

   by Andrea Del Bene

   ...and best wishes for your future.

   Reply

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   Will java be really fine ?

   by Shubhashish Bhowmik

   Its sad to hear about this. Gosling's departure is tough to handle not only in the Oracle but also in the java world, all of sudden java become orphan. I agree there are many guardians and angels around in Oracle. But java will not be the same as it should be. A/w best wishes for your future james...

   Reply

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   He actually retired at least 10 years ago

   by Maurizio Turatti

   I have not read anything significant from the guy in the last 10 years. If somebody can point us to any important, tangible Goslings's contribution to Java or whatever in the last few years I'd be happy to read it, but in my opinion he was just hanging around as a marketing icon.

   Reply

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   Thank you.

   by Mina Waheeb

   Java will never be the same again, thank you James. What a waste!! I expect more from Oracle anyway!!

   Reply

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   java

   by Saul Vanger

   java is a pretty cool language and was definitely one of those most productive languages for a while. however, if gosling didn't make java would we be using smalltalk instead? would the world have been that marginally worse off? i think i'm just bitter because java decided to keep null around. just give me a static typed oo language without the null type being the superclass of almost everything and i'll be happy.

   Reply

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    Well! Its a new begining!

    by Dhirendra Negi

    We have see a lots of Java now, its becoming stale and ugly (rails & buses) ! Lets start something new and fresh!

    Reply

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    Re: Well! Its a new begining!

    by Peter Veentjer

    Although I would love to see a new VM that copies the best parts from the Java and .NET virtual machines (and whatever else is out there) and I would love to see a new platform for hosting different languages, close integration with cloud technology and other cool stuff, it only is going to succeeds with a big company behind it. Else it will remain just a footnote in language/platform history imho.
    
    I know that the Java language is getting very stale, but the Java ecosystem is very very rich and is widely accepted by companies.
    
    Peter Veentjer
    Multiverse: Software Transactional Memory for Java
    multiverse.codehaus.org

    Reply

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    Java not what it originally started out to be

    by Paul Nanouk

    Java was suppose to be a "lightweight, embedded" language, but as most computer projects (linux, php, python, etc) it has grown, grown, and grown like a dude with insulin problems. When will we in the computer industry come to realize the application of Occam's Razor, that "simpler is better?" Even Ruby is now taking the same unfortunate route. Complexity grows without bounds.
    
    IMHO,
    Nanouk

    Reply

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    When will we wise up?

    by Paul Nanouk

    When will we as technologists demand more of our hardware and software? When will we quit trying to speak the computer's language and force the computer to speak ours? When computers spend 98% of their (multi-cores) doing null-cycles, we need to move on to better uses of our time than learning the over now 65 MB of JDK data/information. We need computers that solve problems, not environments that force us to spend weeks/months/years learning now to deal with struts, FX, threads, monitors, etc. I have been in computer programming for over 32 years, I would like to see a real powerful computer programming environment that does not make slaves of the developers to learn a needlessly complex programming environment.
    
    Oh well, maybe its time to take my money and retire to the islands. ;-))
    
    Nanouk
    ex-UCB BSD UNIX development team member from the 70's

    Reply

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    The next version of the Java Language Spec :((

    by Behrang Saeedzadeh

    The next version of the Java Language Spec book won't be coauthored by James Gosling anymore :(( And Gilad Bracha and Bill Joy have already left Sun too :((

    Reply

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    Re: He actually retired at least 10 years ago

    by Mohammed Dessouky

    Nicely said Maurizio. I also wonder what he's done in the last 10 years. Java appstore is not exactly an inspiration. Let's get some fresh blood and take Java to that next level, it's been stuck in 3rd gear for the last 5 years.

    Reply

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    Re: java

    by Henryk Wistreich

    No, I think we would mostly be using C++. And the world would possibly be worse off for a lot of programmers. C++ is a great statically typed OO language in many ways, but, compared with Java proper, it's still a great deal more complex and programs in it are - for several reasons - significantly more difficult to get right for quite many of us. And, C++ and the Web don't really add up.
    
    BTW, what do you mean by the null type? Or is it Object you have in mind?
    
    Cheers.

    Reply

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    Re: Well! Its a new begining!

    by Henryk Wistreich

    Oh, but I guess we have. It's called .NET, I believe - and that's just one. Not that fresh any more, though.

    Reply

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    Re: The next version of the Java Language Spec :((

    by Luis Duran

    We are at where no java's enthusiast has been before. A new beginning.

    Reply

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