The main thing that stood out to me is the only reason Sun could "profit" from this accidental disruption is because someone in management was a nice enough per

The main thing that stood out to me is the only reason Sun could "profit" from this accidental disruption is because someone in management was a nice enough person to allow something which it sounds like they must have seen as a small net loss for the company but a big net win for the engineers involved. I found that part much more surprising and interesting than the presence of harmful politics or people climbing over each other to claim credit for something they previously dismissed. Of course the story would be even more uplifting had Java become profitable and not just popular... (I mean certainly Java was worth something and the prime reason Sun got bought by Oracle, but it wasn't enough to help the company survive as an independent entity and even with hindsight it's not obvious to me what strategy would have allowed Sun to prosper)