Java is the name of a programming language.  It is also an island in Indonesia.  Due East of Java is the island of Sumbawa and Mount Tambora.  But while Java seems to be a perfectly good name for a technology, no one thought to name a programming language Tambora.

Perhaps Tambora is not such a good name for a technology because it exploded 30 miles into the sky in 1815 killing over 120,000 instantly and throwing the Northern Hemisphere into a year-long winter.  Although Tambora has a dynamic history (arguably more exciting than that of Java), I am aware of no marketing department that would consider these to be positive image associations for an upstart new technology.

The official story of how Java received its name leaves me to suspect the marketing group at Sun has been less than earnest with us on the matter.  I find the notion of James Gosling sitting at his desk and wishing Microsoft might become the technical Tambora of his generation to be more appealing.

I had an opportunity to ask a question of James Gosling at a Java Conference several years ago.  Sadly, I was unaware of the history of the Indonesian Isle of Java and its unfortunate neighbor to the East.  I wish it weren't true, but I was too ignorant to ask any valuable question of the sort.  It's a sad statement about my awareness of our planet that I would have been unaware of the largest, most deadly eruption in history just 200 years after it occurred.

It is said that an Englishman sitting down for tea on the island of Java heard explosions at Tambora and reached for his periscope, expecting to see some great naval showdown on the horizon.  Is there a technologist at Sun waiting patiently at the eyepiece for their modern day Tambora?  I don't wish for it, but I love to think of it.


--LukeSamaha

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Well, there isn't a "tambora", but there is that lawsuit-happy company in Utah known as TheScoGroup.  Their prior name (before they renamed themselves SCO, after the old SantaCruzOperation)?

Caldera Systems.