Google or IBM would have been better tjam Oracle. This seems like a false choice: Oracle or nothing.
Back when Java/Sun were up for grabs:
1) Google by far (they were less evil back then, I think). I mean, they would have saved money and headaches and probably a lot of distracting management meetings.
2) IBM, well ok: they did Eclipse, had their own JDK, and a lot of enterprise customers on locked platforms that could financially support the language and platform and were decent contributors to Linux.
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3) Really? Oracle?
It's a miracle Oracle didn't completely kill Java.
They were one of the first companies to jump into Java, in fact the first conference talk about Java that we had on the campus back in 1996 was sponsored by Oracle.
They also collaborated with Sun on the Network Computer thin clients for Java based computers.
In 1999, all Oracle GUIs for their software were converted into Java applications.
They also own J/Rockit and BEA, whose core technologies now live on OpenJDK (JFR, JIT Cache, GC) as free beer instead of enterprise prices.
IBM already has their own Java, and have done so since forever, including some extensions (AOT is supported since decades), so it is debatable what they would further do, kill OpenJDK and replace it with J9?
Given Dart and Go examples, and Android with outsourced everything (language, IDE, messy updates, forked language), thankfully Google doesn't own Java.
Don't try to gaslight me that Oracle is some benevolent company and the BEA / etc product suite of Oracle was some grandiose idealistic movement of software.
IBM and Oracle have a history of acquiring companies to acquire customers.
The difference between the two is that Oracle acquires software so it can sue them. IBM just wants to sell hardware and licenses. Um, yeah, I'll take IBM.
Oracle of course jumped on Java. What was the alternative? IBM had DB/2 at the time. Microsoft had SQLServer. That's not some great vision or buy-in with the Java ecosystem, it was just economic calculation.
And why did Oracle acquire Java? Oh that's right, they only cared about suing google. There are numerous stories of Oracle asking Sun officials specifically about that potential avenue of litigation, almost to the exclusion of any technical merits or other value to the Java assets.
Oracle bundled Ask.com toolbar. End of story.
Google would have simply outsourced everything. Win win win.
No one else bothered to buy Sun, or top Oracle's offer, that is how much the industry cared for Sun.
The amount of hate speech people can vomit against Oracle doesn't change that fact.
> And why did Oracle acquire Java? Oh that's right, they only cared about suing google. There are numerous stories of Oracle asking Sun officials specifically about that potential avenue of litigation, almost to the exclusion of any technical merits or other value to the Java assets.
Sun wanted to sue as well, they already lacked the funds to do that.
Back when Java/Sun were up for grabs:
1) Google by far (they were less evil back then, I think). I mean, they would have saved money and headaches and probably a lot of distracting management meetings.
2) IBM, well ok: they did Eclipse, had their own JDK, and a lot of enterprise customers on locked platforms that could financially support the language and platform and were decent contributors to Linux.
... ....
3) Really? Oracle?
It's a miracle Oracle didn't completely kill Java.