Oracle Java submission hastens Apache showdown

Two weeks and counting

By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco, 17th November 2010

Oracle is not altering course on its Java roadmap, hastening a final showdown with open sourcers at Apache.

On Tuesday, the database giant submitted four Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for Java Standard Edition 7 and 8 for approval to the Executive Committee of Java's governing body, Java Community Process (JCP).

The JSRs are for "small enhancements" to Java and Lambda Expressions, and there are two JSRs for SE 7 and 8 that contain sub-lists of potential JSRs.

This is the roadmap Oracle outlined at its annual conference in September and that it has told JCPers it will deliver, no matter what.

An EC ballot is next with results expected in the next two weeks. The specs' submission was announced here by the chief architect of Oracle's Java platform group Mark Reinhold.

Prussian general and military strategist Karl von Clausewitz said that war is the continuation of policy by other means. In the world of Java, it's JSRs.

Oracle's submission of the JSRs means that the clock is now ticking on its standoff with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). ASF last week urged fellow JCPers to vote against Java 7 and Java 8 unless Oracle lives up to its obligations and grants Apache's Project Harmony a license to use the TCK.

Apache has also said it will quit the JCP if Harmony is not granted a license — ASF has been a JCP member since 2000, and it's also home to some of the web's most popular open source Java projects.

Harmony is Apache's implementation of Java SE, which Oracle has refused point-blank to grant a license. Google's Android uses a virtual machine built on a subset of Harmony, and Oracle is suing Google for claimed violations of its Java patents in Android. ®

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Posted Thursday 18th November 2010 00:34 GMT

FuzzyTheBear

Oracle taking SCO's place ..

as most hated tech company real fast . They choose to go to courts and go against the grain of the whole ecosystem by themselves. Stubbornness looses clients.Just a shame. SCO has tried tactics like these and they got high disapproval throughout. Why companies want to commit the hara-kiri on the public place like they do is beyond me. One does not attract bees with vinegar. Healthy companies listen to their customers and users to develop together a better product. Oracle tries to ram junk down everyone's throat and bully their way. Sorry .. but to us all it's evident. They will loose more in the long run .

Posted Thursday 18th November 2010 14:09 GMT

Vic

Boned...

> most of the key components of the .NET ecosystem, including C#

> the language are recognised international standards.

According to Microsoft, they are patent-encumbered.

Thuis means that, if you live in a jurisdiction that supports software patents, you *can* write your own code to implement these standards, but you *cannot* distribute it.

> ...can be deployed on Linux using Apache and Mono

Mono is a litigation trap. Microsoft could - trivially - announce a patent licence for Mono that would dispel all worries about whether or not MS will eventually sue over its use. They have repeatedly refused to do so - issuing, instead, a ***time-limited*** promise not to sue if you get your Mono from Novell.

Mono is dangerous. Microsoft could make it safe. They refuse to do so.

Vic.

Posted Thursday 18th November 2010 00:36 GMT

Anonymous Coward

Java is now officially boned

It will leave the world without any "write once, run anywhere" language. Well, until Google Go arrives or Mono gains traction (although I would be deeply worried about action from MS if it ever gains usage beyond the Linux world).

This fight between Oracle and Apache will also allow MS to make massive gains if they play it right. "Your site is in Java? ZOMG! Look, those wing-nuts can't even agree on a spec or who owns it! Have you seen APST.Net MVC? Or our .Net Click-Once? And we're cross-platfrom like Java *cough*"

IIS, of course, does not run on Linux; so expect to see a dip in Linux servers as well. Less Linux servers means less support from hardware OEMs, less client devices as a side-effect of that; the virtuous cycle for MS just keeps going.

Which database does Oracle think will be backing all these new implementations?