From Rocc Computers to Azul Systems
Thu Feb 05 2026
An airhacks.fm conversation with Simon Ritter (@speakjava) about:
first computer experiences with TRS-80 and mainframe ALGOL68 programming via punched cards in the 1970s UK,
one-week turnaround times for program execution,
writing battleship games on mainframes,
bbc micro with color graphics and dual floppy drives,
father's influence as a tech enthusiast with a PDP-8 in his chemistry lab,
early fascination with robotics and controlling machines through programming,
writing card games and Mandelbrot set fractal generators in Basic,
transition from BASIC to C programming through sponsored university degree,
working at Rocc Computers on Unix device drivers and kernel debugging,
the teleputer,
memory leak debugging requiring half-inch mag tape transfers and two-week investigation periods,
AT&T Unix source code license access and kernel modifications,
Unix System V Release 4 and Bell Labs heritage,
Motorola 68000 processor's flat memory model versus Intel's near/far pointers,
Novell acquisition of Unix from AT&T in 1993,
Unixware development and time spent in Utah,
SCO's acquisition of Unix IP and subsequent IP trolling,
joining Sun Microsystems in 1996 as Solaris sales engineer,
transition to Java evangelism in 1997,
working under Reggie Hutcherson and Matt Thompson for nearly 10 years,
building Lego Mindstorms blackjack-dealing robot with Java speech recognition and computer vision,
using Sphinx for voice recognition and FreeTTS for speech synthesis,
JMF webcam integration for card recognition,
JavaOne 2004 robot demonstration,
Glassfish application server evangelism and reference implementation benefits,
Sun's technology focus versus business development challenges,
CDE desktop environment nostalgia,
Oracle acquisition of Sun in 2010,
Jonathan Schwartz's acquisition announcement email,
Oracle's successful stewardship of Java through openJDK,
praise for Brian Goetz Mark Reinhold John Rose and Stuart Marks,
six-month release cycle benefits,
Project Amber Loom Panama and Valhalla developments,
OpenSolaris discontinuation leading to docker adoption for server containerization,
Oracle's 2015 pivot to cloud focus,
career-defining conversation in Japan about cloud versus Java evangelism,
layoff during vacation in September 2015,
joining Azul Systems after three-and-a-half-hour interview with Gil Tene,
ten years at Azul working on high-performance JVM Platform Prime garbage collection and CRaC technology,
comparison of Azul culture to Sun Microsystems innovation environment,
commercial Java distribution value propositions and runtime inventory features
Simon Ritter on twitter: @speakjava
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An airhacks.fm conversation with Simon Ritter (@speakjava) about: first computer experiences with TRS-80 and mainframe ALGOL68 programming via punched cards in the 1970s UK, one-week turnaround times for program execution, writing battleship games on mainframes, bbc micro with color graphics and dual floppy drives, father's influence as a tech enthusiast with a PDP-8 in his chemistry lab, early fascination with robotics and controlling machines through programming, writing card games and Mandelbrot set fractal generators in Basic, transition from BASIC to C programming through sponsored university degree, working at Rocc Computers on Unix device drivers and kernel debugging, the teleputer, memory leak debugging requiring half-inch mag tape transfers and two-week investigation periods, AT&T Unix source code license access and kernel modifications, Unix System V Release 4 and Bell Labs heritage, Motorola 68000 processor's flat memory model versus Intel's near/far pointers, Novell acquisition of Unix from AT&T in 1993, Unixware development and time spent in Utah, SCO's acquisition of Unix IP and subsequent IP trolling, joining Sun Microsystems in 1996 as Solaris sales engineer, transition to Java evangelism in 1997, working under Reggie Hutcherson and Matt Thompson for nearly 10 years, building Lego Mindstorms blackjack-dealing robot with Java speech recognition and computer vision, using Sphinx for voice recognition and FreeTTS for speech synthesis, JMF webcam integration for card recognition, JavaOne 2004 robot demonstration, Glassfish application server evangelism and reference implementation benefits, Sun's technology focus versus business development challenges, CDE desktop environment nostalgia, Oracle acquisition of Sun in 2010, Jonathan Schwartz's acquisition announcement email, Oracle's successful stewardship of Java through openJDK, praise for Brian Goetz Mark Reinhold John Rose and Stuart Marks, six-month release cycle benefits, Project Amber Loom Panama and Valhalla developments, OpenSolaris discontinuation leading to docker adoption for server containerization, Oracle's 2015 pivot to cloud focus, career-defining conversation in Japan about cloud versus Java evangelism, layoff during vacation in September 2015, joining Azul Systems after three-and-a-half-hour interview with Gil Tene, ten years at Azul working on high-performance JVM Platform Prime garbage collection and CRaC technology, comparison of Azul culture to Sun Microsystems innovation environment, commercial Java distribution value propositions and runtime inventory features Simon Ritter on twitter: @speakjava