James Gosling announced on Friday that the rumors were true, and he is leaving Sun. James has been a key figure at Sun for a very long time, and you can't expect someone to live their entire life with a single company. Still, the timing of this, after the Sun-Oracle merger, along with the exodus of other key figures at Sun, makes the timing look like a little more than coincidence.
"Yes, indeed, the rumors are true: I resigned from Oracle a week ago (April 2nd). I apologize to everyone in St Petersburg who came to TechDays on Thursday expecting to hear from me. I really hated not being there. As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good. The hardest part is no longer being with all the great people I've had the privilege to work with over the years. I don't know what I'm going to do next, other than take some time off before I start job hunting."
And what happens after a short vacation? Will he become a "Distinguished IBM Fellow?" What projects will he be steering next? Regardless, it's sad news for Sun. In the words of John Gruber, "the Sun we knew is gone."
James Gosling's Blog
*****************
Thanks to Samyem Tuladhar for being the first to update us with this story, asking "Is the Sun on Java fading away? How worried should the community be with this news?" Darned good questions if you ask me.