Simon’s Blog

On the day that Java was Open Sourced, Tim Bray wrote:

And I bet that nobody else will talk about this, so I will: there was internal resistance, and it was passionate… There are people who are bruised and hurting now…

Well, if the rumour-mill has it right, it looks like Tim wasn’t wrong. Infoworld reports that Graham Hamilton, one of Sun’s more senior Java people, and the man originally responsible for pushing Java on the server, has left the company. A spokesperson for Sun is quoted as saying,

Sun thanks Graham for his many contributions to the company and to Java technology. Graham is widely respected by Sun employees and developers around the world. While it is always sad to see an employee of his caliber depart, we wish him well in all his future endeavors.

Rumours aside, however, it’s not clear whether Hamilton’s departure is really anything to do with Open Source. CNET quotes Jeff Jackson, a Sun SVP, as saying,

Mostly he was looking to go do something else after 10 years.

James Gosling will take over Hamilton’s duties, presumably when he’s back at work after his recent surgery.