Slashdot Mirror


Oracle: Google Has "Destroyed" the Market For Java

itwbennett writes: Oracle made a request late last month to broaden its case against Android. Now, claiming that 'Android has now irreversibly destroyed Java's fundamental value proposition as a potential mobile device operating system,' Oracle on Wednesday filed a supplemental complaint in San Francisco district court that encompasses the six Android versions that have come out since Oracle originally filed its case back in 2010: Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, Kit Kat and Lollipop.

8 of 457 comments (clear)

  1. Innovate, not litigate by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    irreversibly destroyed Java's fundamental value proposition as a potential mobile device operating system

    Well there's the problem. Oracle thinks the language and runtime are a complete operating system. There's nothing stopping Oracle making a different OS that uses Java. In fact, the vast amount of libraries for Android out there should be easy to port. Next we'll hear how Microsoft destroyed the value of C as used to build an OS.

  2. Re:Profiting on the Backs of Others by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem with J2ME is that it's awful.

    It's always been awful, I've always dreaded using apps on pre iOS/Android phones.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  3. Cry me a river by chromaexcursion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sun destroyed the market for Java.
    Sun wanted to sell hardware, and they designed Java to run well with their hardware. Sun's ideal was the network is the computer. Java is/was a client language that could run on a lot of platforms, with in Sun's mind a Sun server at the other end. Didn't quite work out that way. Sun was going belly up, Oracle bought the carcass. Sun gave Java away. You can't put the jinni back in the bottle.
    Java was worthless when Oracle bought Sun. They're engaged in revisionist history trying to milk a dead cow.

    1. Re:Cry me a river by MouseR · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oracle had (and still have) much reliance on Java and Sun hardware for their server & middleware tiers. They simply could NOT let it die along with Sun or, worse yet, let it pass to a competitor.

      Disclaimer: that's as far as I will comment on that issue, as I am an Oracle employee. Though I have nothing to do with the Java or Sun group, the native mobile apps I develop eventually touches Java code, server side. It's everywhere.

  4. Keep up, or fall behind by Nyder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The tech industry, just like every industry, improves as people discover new and better ways to do things. If you can't keep up Oracle, you fall behind. And since you've chosen to litigate instead of innovate, you have fallen behind.

    No one is guaranteed profit.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  5. Re: Oracle's monopoly? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    sony-e had a working prototype all java(with I suppose their own os underneath). basically android was a clone of that.

    but what sunoracle fucked up in the mid 00's was being too slow in developing j2me extensions(and the 'all java' phone os that they kept in different projects for years and years) and just badly managing how they could be used(four security dialogs for creating a file in a folder on the sd card each with two clicks from the user, for example - NO MATTER WHAT SIGNING YOU PAID FOR), thus the market for android was there when android emerged.

    as for j2me, the process a new API went through to be an approved API was just stupid. the end result was api's that had always some flaw on them or were just unusable from the day 1, like the j2me 3d _scene_ descriptor shit, which was just a wrong, wrong way to go about it on the hw and use it was launching for(like, the api might have been ok for making some animation suite or whatever, but shitty for making games).

    there was a market for a java development based smartphone os all right.. they just dragged their feet on it for way too long, so that market hole is now filled with android.

    they just didn't care about it enough to make sure that the shit they were certifying and dictating how it should be was usable at all.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  6. Re: Oracle's monopoly? by AC-x · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They didn't make something that worked similarly to Java - that would have been OK, C# is similar to Java after all. They made something that was *identical* to Java. If they didn't want to be sued they should have made their own API and their own language

    What it comes down to is should APIs be copyrightable. Google created their own implementation of the Java API, if companies are allowed to copyright APIs then you can kiss WINE goodbye immediately, anyone wanting to implement an existing API would also be in trouble, and you might not even be able to create a program that even accesses an API without explicit permission.

    To come back to your metaphor just because something implements the IDuck interface doesn't mean it's the same kind of duck.

  7. Re:Groklaw Needed More Than Ever by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're not using Oracle's compiler, it's not a problem as long as you use a GPL compiler. Furthermore, there is a fair-use defense for interoperability, so it's not a problem on multiple levels.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."