[GTALUG] Google wins over Oracle in Java API copyright suit

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: David Collier-Brown via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
| 
| On 2021-04-06 4:27 p.m., James Knott via talk wrote:
| 
| > I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that Sun made Java available and
| > encouraged it's use.  Then when Oracle bought Sun, they tried to rein it
| > back in.  They did the same with OpenOffice.  So, this boils down to Oracle
| > retroactively and unilaterally changing the terms for using Java.
| >
| I was there at the the time, and Sun absolutely did: Java was once a pretty
| little language called Oak, designed for tiny embedded devices, like set-top
| boxes and smart cards. It grew up, and then caught elephantiasis. Android
| therefor seem to me like the kind of device an adult Oak was designed for.

I wasn't there, but...

Background:

I think Sun was a great proponent of open standards.  They won for a long 
time by introducing new ones and always being a step ahead of the other 
workstation and server vendors.

The idea seemed to be that a standard and the code were a bit tied 
together.  If other companies wanted NFS, they licensed the code.  For 
quite reasonable rates, I think.

The first stumble was with their Windowing system NeWS.  Nobody adopted it 
because they thought it would make Sun too powerful.  But I think that it 
was a good system -- better than X.

The Windowing system on NeXT seemed to me to be, to a first approximation, 
inspired by NeWS.  NeWS used a language a lot like PostScript (Forth); 
NeXT used Display PostScript.

Eventually, almost all competitors refused to have anything to do with 
Sun initiatives.  Sun got in partnership with ATT in a way that alienated 
all other UNIX vendors.

End of Background.

Sun released Java and pushed it hard.  Introducing a new platform takes a 
lot of promotion.  It was open but there was only one implementation.  
Amazingly, it took off.

- for embedded systems

- for terminal servers (not completely successful, but a good run)

- for client-side programs (in the browser).  This started out well but 
  JavaScript has completely replaced it.  I'm not sure that this this 
  replacement was a Good Thing

- for server side-programming (this surprised me)

- lots of general corporate programming.  For example, Bank software is 
  written by large armies of programmers, usually in Java

IBM had an implementation of its own, but I think that they paid royalties 
(I'm not sure).

Sun got in financial trouble.  Their one clearly winning product was Java.  
How could they monitise it.  Especially since this was against their 
previous ethos.  They struggled.

Oracle bought them and the culture changed.  Fetters were released.  
Doing unconscionable things seems to come naturally to Oracle.


Why is Java so fat?  Because the original libraries didn't do enough and a 
replacement was needed in a hurry.  And a replacement for the replacement.  
A do-over would be great but the amount of legacy code makes this 
unlikely.


Java seems to be hated.  But there's a lot good about it.  It prevents a 
wlot of bugs that come naturally to C.  (I don't use it.)