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

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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. 

All I can say is his impact on enterprise computing as Java has been imprinted in the history, and thanks for what he and SUN have done for the programming community. Good luck James in your future endeavors.

RJ.

I bet he'll be joining his other fellow luminaries at Google. 

I'll kill a fairy if he joins Neil Gafter over at the dark side.

Of all the things James Gosling has done in his professional career to help me in my career, my first thought was:

No!!!  It's like Iron Man without the Man!!!

Well, with all respects to Gosling and all others, his departure is less of an issue when we compare the fall of Sun itself. If all that Sun, Java and Gosling had been doing in the last 5 years were right, then Java would not have ended up in Oracle's hands.

Oracle is an in and out commercial company... and they are successful in doing what they are doing - right or wrong, I do not know anymore.

I hope Sun's programmers don't leave there otherwise the Java will be go down the hill. I hope he joins IBM, I hope ....

Definitely he should be in hall of fame in Programming History.  For one way to another, it is Oracle guys that made him quit.  I'm sure he'll deny but I'm sure of it!  Of course, I wouldn't say Java is not approaching doom's day either.  There are many talents that can carry Java Legacy.

Recently Oracle CEO said that  bad management by Sun's executives paved the way for the company falling into Oracle's hands. Means that if Sun's guys have been doing their jobs right, Oracle would not have been able to take over the firm!!!