Someday, someday soon, the Oracle-Sun deal will close, and we’ll have more than just speculation to go on when we talk about what’s in the future. But until then, it’s kind of fun to watch folks get anxious. In a conference call Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst, whose company is deep into Java middleware with its JBoss product, struck a note that sounded halfway between fear and bravado: “I think given that Java is not a standalone world, there’s .NET out there as well, and I certainly think and hope that Oracle understands the importance of keeping Java very, very open and moving forward, recognizing that it’s not a single world out there. Java has to compete with lightweight frameworks, has to compete with .NET, and so it’s important to keep Java vibrant and thriving.” Was this an attempt to plead with Oracle not to lock Java down tight, or was it a statement that there’s other fish out in the sea for companies like Red Hat? (The Mono project makes the idea of .NET on Linux not so silly as it might sound.)Meanwhile, over at DevX Mike Rozlog asks three key questions about Java’s future, all centering around the JCP and the Apache-Sun dispute. He manages to talk himself into the idea that Oracle will make these problems go away once it’s in charge — but lurking in the background seems to be the fear that things could get worse rather than better. Technology Industry