What Was the Most Significant Java Event in 2009?

I recently blogged on the software development events in 2009 that seem most significant to me. Although the list was certainly biased toward Java, it was not exclusive to Java. Nevertheless, my number one choice was the Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which will undoubtedly have a huge impact to the future of software development in general and Java development in particular. The current Java.net poll asks which Java/JVM event of 2009 developers think is most significant. Not surprisingly, over half of the current ~260 votes is for the Oracle acquisition of Sun.

The poll includes other Java/JVM events and news of 2009. These are options are closures in JDK 7, Java EE 6, Scala, JavaFX, Java store, and the usual "I don't know" and "Other" options.

In my blog post summarizing the most significant software development developments of 2009, I had many of these in my Top Ten. Scala was my sixth choice, JDK 7 and closures was my fifth choice, Java EE 6 was my third choice, and the Oracle acquisition of Sun was my first choice. I did not have JavaFX or Java Store in my top ten or honorable mention.

After The Acquisition, closures in JDK 7 and Java EE 6 are the distant second and third most voted for Java 2009 developments and that seems about right to me. Oracle's buying Sun seems to have both the most significant short-term effect and even greater long-term effect on Java development. By the way, had IBM purchased Sun, the magnitude of that effect would be similarly large even if the details were somewhat different.

As big as the Oracle acquisition of Sun is for the Java community and ecosystem, it obviously goes beyond the Java world. MySQL alone has been a major issue in this acquisition process. There are other Sun products that have little or nothing to do with Java. And, of course, Java is one of the most significant players in software development so even events particular to Java have ramifications for all of software development.


Tools for Three JVMs

Speaking of Oracle and Java, James Bayer's recent blog post Open the Black Box - Oracle JRockit, Sun Hotspot and IBM J9 JVM Tools provides a brief overview and comparison of tools useful for monitoring and performing diagnosis of JVM performance for the three most significant JVM providers.