GPL was all about freedom but it turns out software is a for profit business.

GPL was created because someone assumed that if someone creates open-source code, they do it altruistically to share their ideas with the world, and wouldn't want anyone else to profit without giving back.

Both counts are wrong, there are lots more reasons, even profit oriented reasons, to open-source code, like get help with maintenance or increase client base, and turns out that most those reasons already take into account that someone might use without giving back.

Simple example I create a framework to sell tomatoes online, and I sell consulting services on that framework to third parties. I wouldn't want anyone not to use my framework because it forces them to open-source ALL code that interacts with the said framework.

Open the source if any of the cases apply:

- Your code is infrastructure and your value is in the service you provide: Open sourcing in this case allows to form a community around your infrastructure and soften the burden of having to maintain it all by yourself.
- The code is already open-source and you provide consultancy services: Your main revenue comes from maintenance and deployment contracts, open sourcing increases your client base.
- You're creating a new market: if the market is completely new then open-sourcing might raise awareness and increase your client base, but it will also help competitors (if and when they emerge and they will if you're successful); This is usually done on a freemium model, you open source the functionality to raise the client base but close "enterprise features" like scalability/high performance/fault-tolerance/configuration management.

Close your source in any other case and if your case does not fall *clearly* into any of these.

People say a lot of things about Java: it's verbose, its old-school, its not fast enough etc....

Although I've been developing in java for quite a few years I might agree with most criticisms...

So why Java? Why not just jump ship to the "cool" new languages (scala,go,python,ruby,etc)?

Two words: community, libraries

The community of java developers is huge which means some (if not most) of the brightest programming is still done in java (or at least in JVM based languages). Access to this body of knowledge allows to grow faster as a programmer and a technician and to solve common problems faster.

There is a huge body of libraries in java to do pretty much everything under the sun. From purely academic stuff to entreprisey stuff through everyday stuff the amount of open-source, free generic java code out there is simply unmatched.

So Oracle: Get a Grip! Wake Up!

What would you do if everyone jumped ship?
Who would use your java enterprise products (that amount to a major share of your income)?

Please please realize that you have a lot more to loose by putting java developers and java based shops on the spot, than you can win from a commercial JVM and and by receiving royalties from all over about your java patents and copyright enforcements.

Don't do it to be nice, we all know you are in the business of making money, do it to make more money on your other products!
A the fastest JVM everywhere will mean your products always run the fastest possible.
A free java language will keep developing for your products efficient and economic as devs are allowed to used the huge community and libraries around.

The path you are leading right now will turn java into the new .NET, i.e., a nice language with some interesting features but with a small open minded community (e.g. non-commercial) and no significant body of open source libraries.

Hum, english is not my native language so I might have missed that detail.
Nonetheless I was in doubt so before I posted I checked it (from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/dish+on):

dish on someone
Sl. to gossip about or slander someone. e.g., Stop dishing on her. She never hurt you! They spent an hour dishing on Wally.

I'll keep that in mind in the future, thanks.

I know the interview is really long but Sculley does the exact opposite. Sculley may criticize some aspects of Jobs management but mostly Sculley is revering Jobs not dishing on him.

Some quotes (sculley about jobs):

"I’m actually convinced that if Steve hadn’t come back when he did — if they had waited another six months — Apple would have been history. It would have been gone, absolutely gone."
"It's ok to be driven a little crazy by someone that is consistently right"

In the middle ages interested (and I mean wealthy) people would be able to grasp multiple areas of expertise (think leonardo da vinci).

Since then things have gotten a WHOLE LOT more complicated, i.e., Would we want civil engineers building bridges if they could skip structural courses?

Professional expertises are narrower and narrower and with that the margin for freedom in terms of what is required to finish a degree is smaller.

The world is more complex, society is more complex, and while there is certainly some wiggle room for each individual the bottom line is that highly specialized workers require a highly specialized, structured, education.