patents, copyrights, branding and counter factual history...
can Oracle patent things in the new Java 7 without first getting the JCP stamp ? if you're going to fork a clean room java implementation from GPL source, its both patents and copyright you have to fear, so if you're on the JCP you might have a bit of an issue if you are also contributing to a clean room competitor to the as yet unpublished java 7.
I hope the Next Big Language is called Tea, because Tea is better for you than coffee ;)
to the person(s) who said "Stallman was right", meh, yes, only by accident.
Had Sun GPLed java too early MSFT would have driven a forking stake through its heart, yes ironically for all the wrong reasons: Java was never a real threat to their desktop, ironically write once run anywhere tech worked best for proprietary server software companies, it saved them money on their own software development across many platforms, money they DIDN'T share with customers by lowering prices.
The key "what if" is ... if the Java desktop hype got killed real early would Sun have continued to push the j2ee idea ? If not, what would have happened differently for folks like IBM & Oracle ?
IMO probably IBM would have picked up Oracle, not Informix... pre-2000, Sun might have tried the same thing but been gazumped. Oracle used java to ride the internet wave to build a cash hoard that let it move up the profit stack into 'middleware'. That pay-for semi-standardized software market would not have existed in this "what if", would have been all MSFT and no j2ee base. Ultimately Oracle moved further up into business apps, where the biggest profits and longest term customer lock-ins are. None of this happens without the Java diversion, giving them 7 years to get frigging RAC right (RAC was about scaling on x86 beyond where MSFT could go with SQL rather than staying dependent on Unix vendors' hardware. its not like Larry ever put all his eggs in the Java basket) and 7 years to fail at writing EBS v1, v2, etc and then find ironically they have enough money to buy PSFT/JDE/MYSQL *and* Java anyway.