The Sun is going to shine on Python
Today is my first day as a Sun employee. — How? — Tim Bray was one of the first people to respond to my “looking for a job” blog post. I have not written about it much, but I've been very impressed with how Sun has handled the JRuby project.
Context & Ripple Effects
Ted Leung's first day at Sun continues a hiring pattern the company has run for over a year: bringing in recognizable open-source leaders rather than just buying their projects. Ian Murdock made the same move with his own 'joining Sun' post back in March 2007.
The hire also slots into the strategy behind Sun freeing Java in late 2006 — making the platform attractive to languages beyond Java itself. Leung points explicitly to how Sun has handled JRuby as what impressed him, and his arrival is read as Sun preparing to give Python similar treatment on the JVM.
First-order effects
- Sun gains a senior Python advocate on staff, converting one prominent community skeptic into an insider — and signaling internally that Python-on-the-JVM work has executive backing alongside JRuby.
Second-order effects
- The move strengthens Sun's browser-and-runtime pitch against Adobe Apollo, Ajax, and Silverlight, where Sun has been competing since its May 2007 counterattack — more supported languages on the JVM widens the funnel for developers choosing a client-side stack.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Sun is positioning itself as the neutral host for multiple dynamic languages — a structural bet that a freed Java plus staffed language teams beats single-language rivals for developer mindshare.
The trend: After opening Java, Sun is assembling a bench of high-profile dynamic-language and open-source figures — Murdock, Bray, now Leung — to make the JVM a multi-language platform.