I'm sitting in on the first day at the ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference, the Fusion Middleware Symposium, and it struck me I think JDeveloper is a poorly branded product.
From a technical point of view, Oracle has massively expanding the product beyond its humble Java roots, from the inclusion of SOA/BPEL, through to growing WebCenter support, and the return of SQL Developer as a plug-in (or spin off, take your pick). In turn the traditional code-centric Java ADF applications are being left behind, replaced with exceedingly declarative solutions in both ADF BC and ADF Faces RC (in fact I've recently completed day long demonstrations of JDev 11g without writing a single line of Java code!).
This is not to say JDeveloper doesn't still support the "J" as such (J being Java), but it's just one part in a larger tool that has broaden its horizons.
From a marketing point of view, the "J" branding is an interesting problem for JDeveloper and Oracle because Java has been taking a bad rap for at least the last 5 years if not more giving JDeveloper a bad name by association. When you've a tool that has so many technologies in it besides Java, yet it is avoided and possibly despised because of its association with Java, this makes it a hard sell. With the "J" in the name it's also difficult to differentiate the tool from any other Java IDE out there. JDeveloper has so much more in it besides Java support, it's not just a simple IDE anymore but a fully-fledged "Service" Development Environment. Yet the Java developers are still comparing JDeveloper to Netbeans and Eclipse for is text-editor features, which is comparing apples to oranges.
Maybe it's time JDeveloper changed its name. Maybe, and I'm going to go out on a limb here, JDeveloper should consider a name change like, drum roll please........
"Fusion Developer"
Then again, if the Oracle Fusion marketing label becomes as despised as Java, maybe a better name would be:
"Oracle Developer" .... or .... "Oracle Developer Suite"
Or my favourite:
"!Apex"
I'm sure Oracle would welcome other more "appropriate" suggestions. Would anybody like to put a few ideas forward?
8 comments:
Chris, I'm sorry but this cause too much confusion. Since there is already a product named Oracle Fusion which is not Oracle Fusion Middleware, renaming JDeveloper to Fusion Developer would drive us all away, because so many developers are not working on Oracle Fusion...
Great! :) I vote for APEX for renaming Jdev ;)
Joao
http://beyondoracle.wordpress.com
Ah, the subtlety of a Java not symbol can sometimes be overlooked, or facetious Aussie humour for that matter. Maybe I should use some more smiley faces in my posts rather than dead-pan text ;)
CM.
Personally I'd support a rename as the 'J' prefix puts me off. To be honest the 11g suffix puts me off as well. I think trying to tie toolset version numbers to database version numbers adds to the confusion. I remember working in a Forms 6i/9i AS/8i database environment, wondering what Oracle was aiming to tell us.
But if they are going to rename it, talk to those guys who come up with the internal project names (Marvel and Raptor) and bypass the committee who equate brand and bland.
What about Oracle Developer Studio?
How about "Oracle Fusion Studio"
I think the Oracle Developer Suite would be confusing as that's what the forms and reports suite was/is called. Maybe something of a hybrid like "Jason" - then we in Aus can call it Jase or Jay ;)
Maybe something like "Oracle Fast Forward" ?
I was being facetious about Oracle Developer Suite too.....
I guess we could try Oracle Developer Suite 3000 ;)
CM.
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