Tag Archives: android

What is Oracle’s mobile strategy for Java?

Posted by on November 16, 2010 No comments

It has been a tumultuous time for Java – the transition to Oracle ownership has been rocky, there has been JCP drama, the language is falling behind feature-wise, and it’s future on a increasingly important platform (OS X) was briefly looking bleak.

Oracle’s stewardship over Java has been the center of a lot of controversy lately, and at least some of it has been largely due to Oracle’s communication with the Java community. I think there is a bit of a culture shock for both sides in this transition – Oracle is used to tightly controlled, infrequent communication with developers, whereas the Java community is used to constant communication and openness from Sun.

I suspect over time this culture difference will become less of an issue – Oracle is already showing a little bit that they can learn to open up and communicate better, and I think the Java community will grow to accept Oracle’s communication style.

For me, however, there is a much more depressing situation going on with the Java platform right now – Oracle not only lacks a (public) vision for the future of Java on mobile devices, they are actively preventing others from making Java relevant in the mobile space through litigation and licensing terms.

First, where is Oracle taking Java in the mobile space? In my view, down a dead-end. At JavaOne, there was a lot of hype (as there was under Sun) about the number of mobile devices Java ran on. Unfortunately, JavaME lacks most of the appeal of the current generation of smart phone platforms – it lacks the features of iOS or Android, is more difficult to develop with, doesn’t target powerful smart phones, and has a much more involved deployment process. In my view, JavaME represents the past, and concentrating on past success isn’t a very good long-term strategy.

There is, however, a company doing interesting stuff with Java in the mobile space – Google. Android competes very well with iOS, is relatively pleasant to develop for, and has a good deployment model. It has its drawbacks, but it is far more interesting and relevant than JavaME. What does Oracle do? They sue Google.

Adding to this is the licensing spat with Apache Harmony over field-of-use restrictions in the TCK designed to prevent Harmony from being used in the mobile space. To be fair, this was an issue that Sun failed to resolve and wasn’t something that Oracle added in after acquiring Sun. To be less fair, when Oracle was just a member of the JCP and not the owner of Java, they strongly supported removing the field-of-use restriction – now that they situation has changed, however, they aren’t doing the very thing they originally supported.

So, to sum up my complaints as a member of the Java community – not only does Oracle (and to be fair, Sun before them) lack a coherent, interesting long-term mobile strategy, they are actively preventing others in the community for moving forward on their own. Will this kill Java? Doubtful – Java can remain viable and interesting without any sort of mobile presence. It certainly is missing a huge opportunity and it will be unfortunate if the millions of talented, motivated Java developers can’t apply their Java skills to developing compelling, useful mobile applications.

More updates about the Oracle vs Google lawsuit

Posted by on August 13, 2010 1 comment

The text of Oracle’s complaint is available online, here (courtesy of Rick Ross of JavaLobby and dzone). It appears as though the complaint centers around 7 patents and a claim of copyright infringement.

Patents

There are 7 patent claims, all of which seem to center around virtual machine related concepts:

6,125,447 – Protection domains to provide security in a computer system
6,192,476 – Controlling access to a resource
5,966,702 – Method and apparatus for pre-processing and packaging class files
7,426,720 – System and method for dynamic preloading of classes through memory space cloning of a master runtime system process
RE38,104 – Method and apparatus for resolving data references in generated code
6,910,205 – Interpreting functions utilizing a hybrid of virtual and native machine
6,061,520 – Method and system for performing static initialization

Copyright

The complaint also references the copyrights around code, documentation, and other artifacts surrounding the Java platform, and claims Google infringes on some of these as well. It isn’t immediately clear what they are referring to, however.

What this means

It is pretty clear that this complaint is centered around the Dalvik VM. Lots of people (including me) have already been speculating about whether or not GWT could also find itself a target of Oracle lawsuits. It is probably safe from the patents listed above, but there is still a potential of it having the same copyright violations as Android – or perhaps Oracle has more patents up its sleeve.

Further, people have been suggesting that Google change Android to use one of the alternate JVM languages (such as Scala or Clojure) instead of Java, but it is unlikely that would make a difference, since the complaint centers around the VM.

The reaction from the Java community has been swift and negative towards Oracle. Google is doing some cool and innovative stuff with Java, why is Oracle going after them like this? Google has been hugely involved with Java, will this lawsuit push them towards another language/platform?

Oracle sues Google over Android

Posted by on August 13, 2010 No comments

I recall a few years back when rumors were swirling about potential buyers of Sun Microsystems. There seemed to be a consensus within the Java community that it would be better for the future of Java for Sun to be acquired by Oracle rather than IBM. Oracle had been a good participant in the JCP and didn’t have as much direct reliance on Java for their business, and thus would have less incentive to muck around with Java.

Today, however, I think much of that goodwill evaporated. According to MSNBC, Oracle is suing Google, claiming that Android violates numerous Java-related patents. I think this doesn’t bode well for the long-term outlook for Java.

Android

Android is one of the most exciting areas in Java development today – it is standing toe-to-toe with Apple’s iOS in the hottest technology space (mobile). JavaME has been reasonably successful – more so than people often give it credit for – but it can’t compete with iOS or any of the other smartphone platforms. Without Android, Java has limited representation in the mobile market.

Frankly, I’m confused as to why Oracle is going after Google here – a consumer phone OS seems pretty far out the realm of Oracle’s normal business.

GWT

I hadn’t even thought of this until one of my co-workers pointed it out – GWT has some of the same legal issues in this case as Android and could fall into Oracle’s crosshairs as well. Oracle has been incredibly excited about JavaFX and GWT is a direct competitor in that area. Will Oracle go after GWT next?

What else?

Java is an excellent language, but it has been showing its age for some time now. Many other languages offer more advanced features and are arguably better in some areas (C# comes to mind), but the main strengths that have kept Java relevant for so long have been the JVM and the community around the platform. If Oracle goes around suing everyone in the Java community with their new IP assets, what does that mean for the community?

Ultimately, we’ll have to see how this develops and what happens – perhaps they will settle quickly, with Google paying some licensing fees and Oracle leaving everyone else alone. Or, perhaps this is just the beginning of Oracle milking every dollar they can out of the Java platform.

With this development, plus all of the high-profile departures of ex-Sun employees, I’m a little worried about the long-term future of the Java platform under the stewardship of Oracle.