Mike Moeller, a VP of Marketing Communications with Oracle, was quoted by The Register's Chris Williams on Oracle's future plans for Java. 

From The Register:

"Oracle is committed to Java and has a very well defined proposal for the next version of the Java EE specification – Java EE 8 – that will support developers as they seek to build new applications that are designed using micro-services on large-scale distributed computing and container-based environments on the Cloud." - Mike Moeller

If true, this is good news for the Java community as well as the many companies that rely on Java to power their businesses and the millions of people who earn a living using Java technologies. The statement seems to validate the grass roots campaign by the Java EE Guardians that have been pressuring Oracle to speak up on the future of Java. The Guardians have gained support from a growing number of Java luminaries over the past few months, and the high-profile reputations and community influence given many of these supporters would have made JavaOne somewhat uncomfortable.

A second statement attributed to Moeller in The Register may raise additional questions.

"Oracle is working closely with key partners in the Java community to finalize the proposal and will share the full details with the broader Java community at JavaOne in September." - Mike Moeller

One might ask who these key partners are, and how have those partners (and more specifically their employees) managed to remain silent all this time while many in the community were seeking answers? If we give Oracle the benefit of the doubt and assume they are indeed "working closely with key partners", there are clear suspects as to who those partners might be.

Annual events like JavaOne are designed for big announcements, but how about something to appease the masses in the meantime? And something a bit more "official" than a couple quotes to a single source? Perhaps a statement on Oracle's site would help cement their commitment, like this recent one published about Oracle's intent to appeal a legal ruling, which was posted less than 24 hours after that ruling was made.