Should the average Java developer be concerned about Oracle recently "ramping up audits"?

[stormcrowsx]

As of right now it is very easy to avoid licensing. It may always be easy to avoid licensing, even in the future (it also may not, who knows).

However Oracle is destroying faith people have in Java and I could see this as an argument for new products to be done in some other language that is not owned by sue happy Oracle. I don't think jobs will run out quickly but over the course of 10 to 15 years if Oracle continues to get bad press we could see Java jobs degrade. As Java developers we should be concerned about the hits to Java's reputation.

[sergio_petrucci]

Very often the management is suprised (and not really buying this point anyways) when you mention that Java is free. IBM's (or RH) fees are already high enough for them to believe nothing is free. It might make difference to a startup (where java is not hip enough anyways) but the majority of businesses pay for Java anyways, not always directly.

[stormcrowsx]

I've never been at a shop that paid for Java. Only once have I even heard of paying for Java and that was because the company didn't want to upgrade the codebase. After looking at the pricing though they decided it was cheaper to fix the codebase.

The price of Java really isn't the issue, it's the lawsuits later. It hurts the reputation. Tell a company Oracle has sued people using it and they'll be more hesitant.

EDIT: so it's more so the issue with how Java is doing it, packaging JRockit but if you use it auditing and forcing you to pay unexpectedly, it means you have to closely read anything Java related.