How interesting it is now that a few days have passed in the Oracle v. Google soap opera there are those crowing over how Mono and .Net is less patent encumbered than Java.
This (Java Patent Grant) is more stringent than the Microsoft Community Promise that applies to .NET as the Community Promise only requires a minimum subset, it does not prevent supersets
Beyond that there is some ‘whispers’ that Oracle might be taking a more ‘open’ path than most envisioned.
When Google came to us with their thoughts on cellphones, one of their core principles was making the platform free to handset providers. They had very weak notions of interoperability, which, given our history, we strongly objected to. Android has pretty much played out the way that we feared: there is enough fragmentation among Android handsets to significantly restrict the freedom of software developers.
There are also folks who claim that Steve Jobs, a friend of Larry Ellison, is the root of the lawsuit. Supposedly he wanted to disrupt the enormous growth of Android to ensure the iPhone / iPad OS has room to grow.
Oh, the world of high-tech silicon valley companies is so interesting. Now… back to the real world.
