The Summaries of War: Oracle vs. Google

So in recent months, I have posted bits and pieces about the Sun aquisition by Oracle. I have remained skeptical of what and where they were going to take certain Java ecosystem components such as GlassFish, NetBeans, and even the java language itself. My latest post on Isn't this a telling Sign for Oracle? talks about Oracle pulling the plug on resources that Sun was providing to the PostgreSQL effort without providing them time to move to other resources. As I've mentioned before, I understand the capitalist side of a business while also being a proponent of open-source software. I'm not completely surprised that Oracle doesn't want to support PostgreSQL since they own the Oracle database, as well as mySQL through the Sun acquisition. But the grievance comes with how they chose to remove resources from PostgreSQL. Dogs of war and men of hate With no cause, we don't discriminate Discovery is to be disowned Our currency is flesh and bone Hell opened up and put on sale Gather 'round and haggle For hard cash, we will lie and deceive Even our masters don't know the web we weave One world, it's a battleground One world, and we will smash it down One world ... One world - Pink Floyd, The Dogs of War Since that time they have made themselves a List of Grievances with the Open Source community. To summarize:

• Pulling the Plug on Postgres Servers
• Squandering of Talented Sun Developers, Especially Gosling
• Killing OpenSolaris
• JCP and Harmony Proposal Backpedalling
• Suing Google

As I've mentioned before, Developers Talk with their Feet, but I'm glad that Gosling is being vocal in this latest debate with Google. In fact, it seems that everyone is being vocal on the subject. I believe that the front page of the Wall Street Journal covered the story both on Friday and Saturday of last week. And it is being covered all over the net, in dozens of articles and blog posts. In fact, there is so much there, that it has taken me some time to read the articles that were of interest to me. I thought it would be helpful to summarize some of those articles, and what was there, in an attempt to help you pick and choose what read is worth your time: Oracle sues Google over Android and Java This articles gets to the meat and potatoes of the lawsuit. It cites patent numbers and includes a PDF copy of the complaint. I was kind of surprised to see this because almost every other article I read seemed to lack the actual complaint. I'm pretty sure that even this weekend's Wall Street Journal article on the front page lacked the language of the actual complaint. Other interesting components of this article are links to articles on how Sun first felt about Android and what it could do to the Java platform. It also links back to Sun's take on what harm Microsoft did to the platform back in the late 90s. Overall, and interesting read. Daily Dose - Google to Oracle: 'Bring it' This is a small little blog entry packed with lots of information on Google's take on the lawsuit, and their willingness to defenct open-source standards. Bonus points for James Gosling take on the whole situation. I bet we are all glad that he isn't currently employed by Oracle, and can speak freely on the topic - "There are no guiltless parties with white hats in this little drama. This skirmish isn't much about patents or principles or programming languages. The suit is far more about ego, money and power." He added, "It's a sad comment on the morality of large modern software companies that Microsoft, while I don't think they've gotten any better since Sun sued them, probably has the high ground." Oracle sues Google over Android - Possible outcomes This is an interesting blog entry on the author's 4 guesses of possible resolution of this conflict. The guesses are all things that we probably all know, but it is interesting to see it in written form, and the guess of moving to another language sparks some interesting discussion. Rebranding Android Becomes JavaME This blog entry is a quick snippet of information, and the best information that I was able to extract from it is that BlackBerry is using JavaME that has been modified. Oracle Sues Google over Java in Android Like the first link this article includes a link to the complaint itself, an lists the patents and a description of what those patents are. It also goes into Android's position in the market relative to Applie iOS a bit, which is probably all information that you know at this point in time. I good comprehensive article, but in a way, a bit of a repeat to the first one that I have listed. Oracle vs. Google - the details: Patents, Complaint and Thoughts. As stated, this blog entry does have the details, and I was hoping that it would have lots of thoughts on the impact to the open-source world. There are some thoughts here, but I was hoping for much more. The shit finally hits the fan...Gosling on Oracle v. Google This is Gosling's blog post on the lawsuit against Oracle, and while the actual blog post only has a little bit of information, it does tell you when Gosling first realized that this was coming. It also talks about what patents he is named on that come into question with this lawsuit. What will be interesting here is less the actual blog post, but the comments that come after them and what he chooses to answer. I would imagine that this blog post is one that I will come back and check on every now and again. Don't skip this one.... Time for Open Source Java Alliance This posting is all about the author's thoughts on this move by Oracle, and what he see's coming next. He compliments google on their "cleaverness and quality of work" on the Android platform, and provide's the developer's take on Android. And he provide's his thoughts on an Open Source aliance to "replace [the] Oracle dependency". On why the Oracle-Google war might have a happy ending This article takes the issue from a completely different side, and I really like it. It is going to get another read from me, and I'm sure that I'll jump in on some of the comments that are taking place on this blog. More then just a rehashing of the issues, it also talks about possible outcomes - and show's some "positive" outcomes that I wouldn't have considered. Oracle vs. Google: in search of a silver lining on Android When I first started reading this artile, I was thinking "this would have been a great article, if I hadn't already read so many on the topic", but then I quickly saw that it gets into the heart of the technicals much more then anything else I had read. It talks about Java ME and Open Source Java and what is and isn't part of Android. It also talks about the language versus the platform and how it relates here. If you are a programmer, you will want to give this a read. How legal is Running a Java class in modified JVM , Deploying Hacking version is not allowed When I first saw this article, I was hoping that it was going to help answer some questions about the use of Java in my own code, in my company's code, and what does and doesn't need to be licensed. Instead it asks some of the same questions, and maybe other ones. It probably deserves another read by me, because I probably need to come up with "the list of questions" that I need to ask about licensing of Java. Maybe that is the next post. I hope that this blog entry has saved you some time, and pointed you to the relevant articles on the subject. Please comment and tell my your thoughts on Oracle, the future of the Java language, and the java platform and your thoughts on the outcome of this lawsuit. If you have great articles for me to add to this list, please send them along too! David Sachdev