Sun Microsystems created Java and was acquired by Oracle in 2010, remaining a major software name by market value before its acquisition.
Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 by Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim, Scott McNealy, and Bill Joy. It became known for powerful workstations, servers, the Solaris operating system, and the SPARC processor architecture.
Sun engineers developed Java in the 1990s. The language's promise of running across different platforms helped it spread through web applications, enterprise software, and later Android development. Sun also created or supported technologies such as the Network File System and contributed to open-source software.
Oracle agreed to acquire Sun in 2009, and the transaction closed in January 2010. A common mix-up is crediting Oracle with creating Java. Oracle became its owner after the acquisition; Java originated at Sun Microsystems.