Gosling departure to leave a mark at Oracle

It's not just that he's considered the "father of Java."

It's the way that he did it that will leave a mark.

Gosling actually left on April 2, then opened a new blog (at Nighthacks.com) a week later to confirm the rumors he'd gone and to leave some rather cryptic hints that things are not all rosy over in Oracle-land:

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.

Open Office was a money sink, and mySQL expected to lose its best-and-brightest. But Java was Sun's great open source success story, its crown jewel. Gosling's leave-taking is going to leave a mark.

The fact that his cartoon-like image on the new blog sports that image of Duke, the open source Java mascot (above), rather than a branded Java image should also speak volumes. Apparently Gosling is no longer willing to be Oracle's Butler. (Sorry, couldn't stop myself on that one.)

Seriously. The willingness of developers to expand the footprint of an open source project is based, in part, on their confidence that the sponsor has their back, that it's as committed to the project as they are, and that its open source bonafides are in order.

Gosling's leaving adds to the impression that Oracle's open source bonafides are not in order.