[IdeaHamster]

Hold on a moment there... Java is still #1 on the TIOBE index and hasn't been lower than #2 since the index began in 2001. Oracle could declare by fiat that it was going to sue every single Java shop in existence, and it would still probably be cheaper for most of them to pay Oracle's settlement fee then to switch away from Java.

[Lewisham]

The problem is not that enterprise won't pay, they can and they will. That's how Oracle sells databases.

The problem is a middle-term one: open-source will shy away from it (and the Apache/JBoss libraries are A Big Reason to use Java), academia will begin to stop teaching it (for all the "it doesn't matter what language you use" arguments, there are many mediocre programmers who can only handle the one thing they are taught), and new company projects will try and avoid the license fees and choose unencumbered languages. That sort of thing won't hurt Oracle now, but it will in five to ten years.

Heck, if Microsoft ever saw the woods from the trees and freed C#, bought the Mono devs and pushed the .NET ecosystem to other platforms, creating a sea of programmers that use their language alone, Oracle could feel the results of this in less than three years.

[donw]

If MS turned C# and .NET into a true open-source ecosystem, as well as the CLR, my next project would be in C# without a doubt.

[mechanical_fish]

And what is going to stop the heirs to Microsoft's patent portfolio from suing you, ten years hence?

Microsoft's conversion to open source is going to have to be really really convincing after yesterday's precedent.

[fedesilva]

Mine in F#

[nickik]

Lets hope that Java will get thrown out of teaching. Its posible the worst langauge for teaching.