Oracle complains about Sun’s Java-Release-Cycles

A keynote of Dalibor Topic (Oracle) criticizes the Java-Release-Cycles of Sun Microsystems at the Java conference „CONFESS 2011“ in Vienna, Austria. After showing the past of Java SE from version 1 to 6, he showed a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) named „SWOT – Sun days“ (Picture from my Tweet). One weakness stated the slow release cycle of Java SE. Oracle will do a better job in the future, beginning with Java 7 in 2011 and Java 8 in 2012. Further releases (Java 9 and so on) also seem to be in planning stage already. Java shall remain the most used language!

OpenJDK will become more important for Oracle than it was for Sun

However, a strength of Sun was the large Java community. Oracle recognized its bad name in the Java community as it was stated in the „Java SWOT – Oracle“, which followed Sun’s SWOT analysis. Oracle will re-connect to the community in the future. An important statement of the talk is related to the OpenJDK: „ I think, Open JDK will become more important for Oracle than it was for Sun.“ Therefore, JRockit content will be merged to OpenJDK. The JDK / JRE will still be free in the future, and contain the same license as before. Of course, Oracle will offer premium services such as JFR, JRMC, JFB or support.

Trends for Oracle: Multi Core, Dynamic Languages, DSLs, Cloud and Mobiles

At the end, Dalibor Topic showed which trends will be important in the Java / JVM environment for Oracle in the next years: Multi core processors, dynamic langugages, domain specific languages, cloud computing, smart phones and tablets. No surprise after all

My conclusion: The critique about the slow Java-Release-Cycles is true. The plan of Oracle for the future of Java sounds good! What do you think?

Best regards,

Kai Wähner (Twitter: @KaiWaehner)