Sun Microsystems Corp.’s JavaOne conference kicked off this week in San Francisco. Here are just a few things seen and heard …
1) This year’s JavaOne, the 14thsince the annual conference kicked off and now rumoured to potentiallybe the last once Oracle takes over, welcomed attendees from more than85 countries (Canada ranking third) at an alumni return rate of 40 percent. The theme was: “Changing Y(our) World.”
2)Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz reminisced the past 14 years of work thatfather of Java James Gosling has given to the programming language,saying, “James to me is every bit the embodiment of a leader, wardrobenotwithstanding.”
3)Today, there are close to one billion desktops and 2.6 billion mobiledevices running Java. “It’s beyond dispute. Java really is everywhere,”said Schwartz.
4)Recipients of Duke’s Choice Award this year, as voted by peers,included Jagex, maker of Java-based video game RuneScape. Schwartzsaid, “Thank you very much both for the support of the platform and forkeeping my kids and all of their school entertained. It’s been a greatanaesthetic.”
5)For the past year, Sun has focused on bringing down the barriers toentry for Java developers who have to contend with building fordifferent platforms, and trying to monetize their creations.
6)Schwartz thinks smart phones are the most exciting device right now andis an “extraordinary market that continues to emerge” for Java.Research in Motion’s BlackBerry is a “full Java stack from top tobottom,” according to Alan Brenner, RIM’s senior vice-president ofBlackBerry platforms.
7)Sun Microsystems chairman and co-founder, Scott McNealy, joked on stagethat the company, post acquisition by Oracle, could take advantage ofthe friendship between “Larry and Steve” to get Java on Apple Inc.’siPhone.
8)McNealyjoked that free advertising would be an advantage of the Sun-Oraclemerger if Larry Ellison’s sailboat bore the Java logo on the sail.“None of this should have been a surprise, speaking of boats, this hasbeen known for years. Larry’s other boat is called Rising Sun. Howobvious was this?”
9)Ellison told Java developers Oracle will continue to invest in Java.McNealy said to Ellison on the topic of the Oracle acquisition: “Let’sstay focused on Java because that will keep us mostly out of troublehere on stage.”
10)At CommunityOne, Dave Douglas, Sun’s senior vice-president of cloudcomputing and chief sustainability officer, encouraged the audience tobe “citizen engineers” by applying their knowledge to the broadersociety. “It’s no single person doing everything anymore,” saidDouglas, explaining that people collaborate in communities in acontinuous manner. “It just keeps going, that’s what is exciting aboutit.”
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