IBM backs Oracle against Apache and Google's Android

Oracle is no longer totally isolated on Java — IBM now stands with the giant, in a move that potentially stymies Google's Android. IBM said Monday that it's putting its efforts into the OpenJDK project, run by Oracle, and switching away from the Apache Software Foundation's (ASF's) Project Harmony on Java Standard Edition ( …

[Jim Hague]

Google switch Android to OpenJDK? Why?

Android is not Java-the-System. It uses Java-the-Language plus parts of Harmony to provide the standard basic Java types, collections, networking etc. libraries. Most everything else is Android specific, including the JVM.

IBM may have been Harmony members, but AFAIK they never shipped anything based on Harmony. Certainly the AIX JDK is completely Sun based. I would guess IBM regarded Harmony as insurance against Sun somehow taking their ball away.

So the Harmony project's goal of a complete Apache-licenced open source Java SE may be a little further away, but that's irrelevant to Google. They don't want or need Java SE. Or ME.

[Charlie Clark]

Well said, that man!

It's probably arguable as to whether Google need Java at all. Which is probably what has got Oracle all worked up in the first place. Then, if you don't need Java on the phone, you might not need it on the server. I'm not sure how many Android users know or care that Dalvik is a Java VM. I mean, what is one of those anyway? I smell lawsuits from Oracle about trademarks with Google walking away and saying Dalvik has nothing to do with Java™ and everything to do with Go, or something along those lines.

[Randall Shimizu]

Oracle's compliance plan for Google

I can understand Oracle's concern about Google's non-standard Java implementation fracturing the code. So perhaps this was Oracle's plan to bring Google into compliance.

[Anonymous Coward]

re: Oracle's compliance plan for Google

As the first commenter said, why should Google care though? Their clean-room design means that they have no reliance on any Java implementations. I imagine they'd rather reimplement from scratch than get involved in this farce.

[Anonymous Coward]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz now I have a stupid title let me post my comment please

I get a feeling that the otehr tech companies really don't like google or really like apple.

[D. Suse]

Why the lawsuit, then?

So why are they suing Google, exactly? Oracle (and now IBM) are "stewarding" a free, open-source version of Java, for which they receive exactly nothing from users. This OpenJDK does exactly the same thing as the version that Google (and Apache) are using. Therefore, "Larry Ellison and the Sycophants" should be allowed to sue Google? Why? They are obviously not losing any money.

Ahh...Larry's EGO, almost forgot about that.

(PS: Dear Reg: please supply a horned Ellison caricature to be used while posting these messages...I have a hunch this will be needed more and more as time marches on...).

[TomasF]

IBM "backs Oracle", or "forced to abandon Harmony after years of opposition"?

Based on the rest of the article, sounds more like the latter to me...