This year's conference will begin Tuesday, June 2, at the usual place -- the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Held since 1996, JavaOne attracts about 15,000 attendees per year.

, will Oracle put an end to JavaOne and perhaps replace it with a Java emphasis at the massive Oracle OpenWorld conference? OpenWorld will be held in October at the same place as JavaOne.

Asked what the future holds for JavaOne, representatives from Sun and Oracle declined to comment on Tuesday. A glance at the Moscone running from January to June 3, 2010, however, does not list JavaOne as a scheduled event. A Moscone representative did not know of future plans for the event. An austere does exist for JavaOne 2010, stating the event runs June 21-24. The page invites submission of presentations.

Observers Tuesday offered varied perspectives, with Gartner analyst Roy Valdes speculating there might indeed be an end to JavaOne at some point. But for Oracle to suddenly pull the plug on JavaOne might give out the perception that the company does not care about Java. Over time, however, JavaOne could disappear, Valdes reasoned.