This past monday, it was announced that Oracle and IBM were buddying up to collaborate on OpenJDK, which is Oracle’s open source Java implementation.
For those of you who aren’t up to speed on the whole Oracle versus Google fiasco, know that Oracle is suing Google over what it feels are patent infringements over Google’s use of Java in the Android OS, which Oracle took over the rights to when they acquired Sun Microsystems.
Now, you may be wondering why IBM being thrown into the mix could be bad news for Google. As it turns out, Android apps are primarily coded in a restricted offset of the Java language, and Android’s ability to run this Java code has its foundation in the Harmony project, which is an open source Java implementation which was created under the Apache Software Foundation.
The code that makes up Harmony was largely written by IBM employees, which is where things get sticky for Google and Android. In light of this new partnership with Oracle, IBM has said that they will be focusing most of their efforts on OpenJDK with Oracle, leaving many to think that Harmony will eventually cease to be updated by IBM.
Interestingly enough, Google actually has more developers contributing to OpenJDK than Oracle does. However, Google would much rather use a neutral Java implementation like Harmony than have to deal directly with Oracle, especially with all this lawsuit business.
It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out. At this point, it may be in Google’s best interest to reach a settlement and get in on this OpenJDK action and put all of this behind them.
However, knowing Google, they will likely hold out and figure out another solution, such as pushing their developers to continue keeping the Harmony project afloat. That being said, developers always want to be where the action is, and with Oracle and IBM both pushing their attention towards OpenJDK, developers may be weary to continue working within the confines of Harmony.
[via InfoWorld]