[rodgerd]

Con: all the BSDs and Linux are now owned by whoever most recently picked up the POSIX APIs. ReactOS and WINE are now illegal. SQL is the private property of IBM.

Pro: I guess if you hate Google because you love Steve Jobs or something it looks like a win.

[Zikes]

It's all fun and games until IBM sues Oracle for SQL royalties.

[Crito]

If I didn't think it would negatively impact the rest of the industry, I'd pay to watch that.

[rodgerd]

It would be the only possible good outcome. Unless it turned out someone owned enough of the CP/M API for it to bite Microsoft in the bum.

(While we're dreaming, would HP's ownership of VMS mean anything re: NT...)

[saryant]

None of that has happened. An amicus brief has been filed, that is all. An amicus brief is not law and the Supreme Court has not yet ruled one way or another.

[bbatsell]

The current holding comes from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and is in Oracle's favor. Unlike other regional Courts of Appeal, the Fed Circuit's decisions are binding nationwide because the court has subject-matter jurisdiction rather than geographic jurisdiction. The Solicitor General's amicus is in full support of the Fed Circuit's decision, and the Supreme Court has historically taken an SG amicus hugely into account when the SG is not a party to the case. Should they choose to do so here, they will not grant cert, let the decision stand, and it will be binding nationwide due to stare decisis.

So, while your statement is true, the situation is more dire than you suggest.

[saryant]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of all that.

[oldmanjay]

Quick question - do you feel the need to associate this to Apple because of your deep personal hatred for that company, or for your deep abiding love for Google?

Or was it neither, and you just like using rhetorical devices to bolster your weak points?

[laumars]

You're reading far too much subtext there. He's "pro" was just a flippant way of saying "there isn't any positive to come from this aside the super shallow brand-loyalty reasons"

[rodgerd]

I'm sure you had a point, but you didn't make it in an intelligible way.