JRuby Guys Leave Sun, Language Looks Likely To Suffer
JRuby guys leave Sun, citing the uncertainty surrounding Sun’s acquisition by Oracle and Oracle’s support for the JRuby language.
Sun hired Charles Nutter and Thomas Enebo, often called “the JRuby Guys,” about two-and-a-half years ago so they could work full time on JRuby, an implementation of the Ruby programming language for the Java Virtual Machine. Some months later Sun hired Nick Sieger, another key JRuby developer.
All three will start work at Engine Yard next week. Nutter said they decided to leave Sun largely because of the uncertainty resulting from its acquisition by Oracle, a deal that’s expected to close later this summer pending regulatory approvals.
“To be honest, we had no evidence that Oracle wouldn’t support JRuby, but we also didn’t have any evidence that they would,” Nutter said by telephone Monday
src – computerworld
In an interview with eWEEK, Nutter said the main reason for moving JRuby to a more secure and stable position at a hardcore Ruby/Rails shop like Engine Yard was “uncertainty about the future and also Engine Yard reaching out and committing to helping to move JRuby forward.”
src – eweek
It would be interesting to see if Sun / Oracle continues to push JRuby or if JRuby now takes a back seat. Also without the financial & marketing muscle of a Sun or Oracle behind it, it is quite likely that JRuby’s growth will slow down.
Charles Nutter has written a blog explaining the reasons why the JRuby team has moved from Sun to EngineYard – http://bit.ly/Izls2
He says –
“For JRuby, the move to Engine Yard means we’ve got a dedicated Ruby and Rails company backing our project. We’ve always believed in Ruby and Rails, but have long realized there’s more we need to do…”
Charles Nutter has written a blog explaining the reasons why the JRuby team has moved from Sun to EngineYard – http://bit.ly/Izls2
He says –
“For JRuby, the move to Engine Yard means we’ve got a dedicated Ruby and Rails company backing our project. We’ve always believed in Ruby and Rails, but have long realized there’s more we need to do…”
Sounds like a pretty suspect conclusion to jump to for me. JRuby isn’t a core part of Sun’s strategy and while hugely interesting and useful is always going to have to take a back seat to the rest of their Java stakeholdings. Meanwhile Engine Yard are well funded, probably the most well know brand in the Ruby community, and somewhat dependent on high performing Ruby implementations (of which JRuby is one) to keep their infrastructure costs low.
Sounds like a perfect partnership to me.
Sounds like a pretty suspect conclusion to jump to for me. JRuby isn’t a core part of Sun’s strategy and while hugely interesting and useful is always going to have to take a back seat to the rest of their Java stakeholdings. Meanwhile Engine Yard are well funded, probably the most well know brand in the Ruby community, and somewhat dependent on high performing Ruby implementations (of which JRuby is one) to keep their infrastructure costs low.
Sounds like a perfect partnership to me.