JavaOne was full of happiness and fun; to read the many blog posts of the folks who were there, you understand why these trade shows are worth it to so many people. There really is a sense of community that comes when you get together with thousands of strangers interesed in the same things you are. And Larry Ellison even showed up to make comforting noises about Java’s future!With the afterglow over, though, Java fans will need to start dealing with news like this piece from Robert McMillan, which questions whether the community will hold the same place in the hearts of Java’s owners after the merger deal closes. The most chilling quote comes from an unnamed Oracle employee to an unnamed Sun employee: “We’re not a nonprofit company like you guys.” Oracle intends to make money from Java, something Sun was never able to do, and thus its approach will be quite different. For all its long-term Java ambitions, Sun has always been, to look at its balance sheet, anyway, a hardware company. Oracle’s a software company, and intends to make money from software. How that works out in practice will be very interesting. Technology Industry