Mark Little, who is Red Hat's chief technologist for middleware and a member of the Java Community Process (JCP) executive committee, raised the concern in an interview that Oracle may handle its stewardship of the Java programming language differently.

Because Oracle tends to be more focused on monetizing its technology than Sun has been, it could try to maintain tighter control over Java, Little warned. By loosely controlling the language and supporting standards, Sun allowed an ecosystem of Java vendors to thrive. If Oracle were to apply tighter control over Java it might be beneficial to Oracle, but could limit the Java middleware industry as a whole.

Offering a more sanguine perspective is Rod Johnson, general manager of VMware's SpringSource division, which offers production-ready versions of the Spring development framework and Tomcat application server, among other Java technologies. "I don't expect Oracle to do anything sinister to Java," Johnson said. "It is not a stupid company."

In either case, Java has become another entry in a growing list of Sun-sponsored technologies, which also numbers and , whose fates remain uncertain under Oracle rule.

An Oracle spokesman declined to comment on Oracle's plan for the language, though the company has scheduled a for Wednesday, Jan. 27, to detail how Sun's technologies will be folded into the Oracle strategic road map.