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by javajosh 1737 days ago
Do you know what the legal relationship is between Red Hat and Oracle is? I think Oracle v Google has sent shivers of fear through anyone wanting to rely on Java, including through an intermediate, because the strength of the relationship is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. In other words, what is the risk that Red Hat will be sued by Oracle someday over their use and support of Java?
4 comments
pjmlp 1737 days ago
Sun and Oracle have only sued those that went out of their way to create their own Java flavours, namely J++ and Android Java.

The Java ecosystem is just like C and C++, full of alternative, compliant implementations.

Microsoft learnt their lesson and is now an OpenJDK contributor.

So when will Google stop cherry picking OpenJDK features and actually support proper Java on Android?

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bradleyjg 1737 days ago
Let’s say Oracle sues Red Hat (now IBM), so what? Are android devs all totally screwed because Oracle sued Google?

I’m not going to defend Oracle’s business practices but this seems like FUD. You can use Red Hat, Amazon, or Azul’s jvm. If it’s too “scary” to do so for your company than you need better executives and/or lawyers.

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boulos 1737 days ago
> If it’s too “scary” to do so for your company than you need better executives and/or lawyers.

That is the point though. It's sort of obvious if you read through the terms. But if you're at a company that is already afraid of words like GPL, the JDK is "now" also scary.

At the same time, even if your legal department are scared of Oracle (and really just stories of "I heard Oracle sued Google"), I claim that the Corretto docs (and similar) are quite clear.

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bradleyjg 1737 days ago
But if you're at a company that is already afraid of words like GPL, the JDK is "now" also scary.

These companies either only develop software peripherally to their business, in which case sticking with java 8 is probably going to be fine, if silly, or they are the walking dead.

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wbl 1737 days ago
Java is GPL2+Classpath Exception licensed.
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vbezhenar 1737 days ago
Google perverted Java. That's what Oracle sued Google for. And that's what Sun sued Microsoft for decades ago. Red Hat is not trying to turn Java into something different, it just builds and supports existing OpenJDK codebase. It's absolutely different thing.
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pjmlp 1737 days ago
Yeah, where did all those from anti-J++ cheering crowd went?
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