Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community. | Sun’s efforts to make Java open source have also led to decidedly mixed reviews.

The acquisition was partly defensive because Oracle probably did not want competitor IBM owning the Java language, he added.

Does Java’s open source status help it?

Ranadive doesn’t think Java’s open source status means all that much.He serves as a JCP executive committee member. How Oracle’s ownership may help Java at the Eclipse Foundation, an open source tools organization that has counted Oracle as a member but not Sun, Executive Director Mike Milinkovich sees the merger as a "very positive sign for Java and open source. Battles with IBM foreseenGCSI Commerce’s Roth, a former Sun and BEA employee who left BEA after Oracle acquired the company last year, was not optimistic about Java’s fate. Microsoft, Adobe may benefit a main benefactor of Oracle buying Sun is Microsoft, said Tibco’s Ranadive. Oracle also might de-emphasize Sun’s JavaFX rich media platform, McAllister said, which could help both Adobe and Microsoft, which offer the competing Silverlight and Flash/Flex technologies.