This one's all about code. The mystical language which makes our shiny toys work. Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, who owned Java. They then made a stern claim Google had pilfered some of its code to run the phenomenally successful Android platform.
Google, and their CEO Eric Schmidt, formerly director of software engineering at Sun Microsystems, say '¿Que?.'
Mostly troops rally around Google publishing articles highlighting the code Oracle are talking about is just test code and wouldn't have actually made it into the Android DNA. This is roundly accepted as being really difficult to prove. So Oracle put in a bill for $2.7bn, royalties for every Android handset sold.
In a completely unrelated move over at Google HQ, James Gosling becomes a new member of the family. Not that it's relevant, at all, but James Gosling is the founder of Java script and former VP of Sun Microsystems. On his blog James said "Not sure what I'll be doing, a bit of this and that I expect."
In my mind, when James turns up for his his first day he is welcomed and offered a coffee. After this the words I expect he heard were "Well James, this is our legal department, you'll be working in here with these Guys for a couple of months." Google, you're stylin'.
The presiding judge has 1) told Oracle to come back to the table with a realistic number, and 2) Told both parties to talk to each other, like grown ups.
Will they? Not likely in the short term. What does make things slightly awkward for Oracle is a blog post by former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, in 2007, when he was very much acting CEO;
I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others from Sun in offering my heartfelt congratulations to Google on the announcement of their new Java/Linux platform, Android. Congratulations!
I'd also like Sun to be the first platform software company to commit to a complete developer environment around the platform, as we throw Sun's NetBeans developer platform for mobile devices behind the effort. We've obviously done a ton of work to support developers on all Java based platforms, and were pleased to add Google's Android to the list.
And needless to say, Google and the Open Handset Alliance just strapped another set of rockets to the community's momentum - and to the vision defining opportunity across our (and other) planets.
Today is an incredible day for the open source community, and a massive endorsement of two of the industry's most prolific free software communities, Java and Linux.
Oops... All that said, there is still certainly a case to be answered and all this will end when a judge drops a hammer...
...to be continued.
Next time - Apple v Sammy
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