Of course, because the language is open source, outside developers could just fork Java, leaving Oracle with the official version and concentrating their efforts on outside projects such as , the open-source implementation of the Java platform.

SpringSource's Johnson noted that most Java development these days is done not with the language, but with other software built on top of Java, and by organizations outside of Sun. "The Java community does not have the dependency on Sun that it did five or 10 years ago," Johnson said.

Should Oracle make unpopular decisions, "the community would diverge away," Johnson said. Their work just couldn't be called Java, though, Little said.

But such control would be unlikely, Johnson said, insofar that Oracle has far more to lose financially by clamping down. "Oracle is incredibly dependent on Java" for many of its core programs, Johnson said. "The revenue that Oracle derives from Java being healthy far outweighs any revenue that it could obtain through more aggressive control," Johnson said.

The Java community is so large at this point that any attempts to close off a certain segment of the technology would just be circumnavigated by other approaches, agreed Amit Pandey, CEO of Terracotta.