Devoxx versus JavaOne

Devoxx or JavaOne?
Thats the question...

It's really not that difficult to choose.
If you are based in Europe (as our company is), then you will for sure get more value for your money attending Devoxx instead of JavaOne.

However, if you look at a technical perspective, then still Devoxx comes on top in my opinion. The opening talk is by Mark Reinhold and one of the last talks, "Java state of the Union" is by no other than James Gosling. (I don't even need to link to him, every Java developer should know who he is), and there are tons of fameous speakers: Brian Goetz, The JavaPosse, Heinz Kabutz, Richard Bair and Roberto Chinnici just to name a few. (No pun intented for the others I didn't mention).

So it shouldn't come as a big surprise that I am also attending Devoxx. If you are going, lemme know and we can hook up!

Java 7, yet another delay

Mark Reinhold has published a blog stating what has been painfully obvious to everyone following the JDK 7 development: It will yet again be delayed until mid 2012(!)

Mark is further saying that there is an alternative which they are considering, and that "is to take everything we have now, test and stabilize it, and ship that as JDK 7. We could then finish Lambda, Jigsaw, the rest of Coin, and maybe a few additional key features in a JDK 8 release which would ship fairly soon thereafter."

I couldn't agree more. The community has waited too long for Java 7 to come out. There are so many problems in the current Java version, that makes people look around for alternatives in the Java Virtual Machine.
I am certain that if Java 7 will be delayed for yet two more years, then most people by that time will move to other languages such as Scala and Grails, which doesn't have the problems Java has today. 

So, to sum up. Oracle has my vote to ship whatever they have now, and then come with the rest of it with JDK 8.