MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-05-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Oracle attach on Android Copyright
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Java: The caffeinated consciousness in nearly everything turns 20
An affectionate roast to the bitter suite
By Chris Merriman
Fri May 22 2015, 15:16
Java? Fo'coffee
*JAVA, THE PROGRAMMING* language which launched a thousand security
problems, is 20 years old.
Java was originally designed by James Gosling of Sun Microsystems in
1995 as a universal language which would overlay a virtual machine on
any platform to run its 'applets'.
The language, mostly based on C# and C++, has gone on to be the basis of
set-top boxes, watches, modems, routers, in fact anything that requires
an operating system, as well as an estimated 2.1 billion low-level
mobile devices running its embedded version, Java ME.
In fact, the story of Java is a story of a piece of software that
outgrew its proprietary model and was relicensed in 2007 under GNU.
But what next for Java? It's showing its age, and more and more hackers
are finding ways to exploit it.
Any casual computer user will have clicked away an update to the Java
platform so many times because it has needed patching so regularly that
it has almost become an OS that cried wolf.
Java required 167 security vulnerability patches
in January 2015 alone, and that's not just a headache for system
administrators, it's a full on, three-day, darkened-room, facecloth on
head migraine with flashing lights and dizzy spells.
But putting it out to pasture isn't a solution. There are nine million
programmers actively working on one of the most widespread and versatile
platforms there is, and it just isn't going to happen any time soon.
And then there's the way it's treated by its masters. Java is currently
run by Oracle, which bought Sun in 2010.
Java is an essential element to many websites and web apps, as well as
quite a few desktop ones, yet Oracle continues to abuse its position by
offering bundleware with each download
.
It was a practice that began on Windows but has recently spread to Mac,
causing users inadvertently to download all the things all the time.
What's so abhorrent about this is that Oracle clearly doesn't need the
money ($883m allegedly), and is turning what is supposed to be a public
facing programming language into a cash cow for naive web users.
And that makes us cross. Especially as it involves an Ask Jeeves
toolbar, something that is about as fashionable as luminous pink
drainpipe jeans at the Albert Hall.
Of course, Java has to pay for itself, but is this really the way?
Again, Unchecky . That's all we're saying.
And then there's the whole thing with the thing. Yes. Oracle vs Google
,
and a judgement from the O J Simpson school of law enforcement.
California Federal Circuit judges reversed a decision in 2014, meaning
that Oracle had a right to claim copyright over parts of Google's
Android operating system.
Confusingly, of course, Java is supposed to have public GNU licences.
But the APIs, it was argued, don't and the copyright rests with Oracle.
What this means in real terms is that Oracle successfully convinced
judges that by linking Android to Java, both open languages, copyright
was breached.
It's yet to be seen what, if anything, Oracle is going to do with this
ruling. It could argue that it owns a share in every Android phone,
ever. And if that happens, there's going to be a world of copycat suits
from everyone who has ever written an API linking anything to anything.
And that's why Oracle has to be careful. Because APIs are in many ways
the future of computing.
The Internet of Things is at the very heart of the role Java will play
in the next 20 years - a tiny lightweight embedded operating system
powering sensors in everything from brakepads to bins to Bluetooth speakers.
And if that environment becomes the next battleground for trolling, it
could set the course of progress back by 20 or 30 years while everyone
decides whether it's OK for your thermostat to talk to your hoover
without paying a surcharge.
In addition, of course, Snappy Ubuntu Core
is one of dozens of other embedded languages that are, ahem, snapping at
Java's heels, and one wrong move now will lose the dominance it has
built up. Add to that, rumours thatGoogle plans to launch its own IoT
language, Brillo
,
at nest weeks I/O Conference.
So as Java celebrates entering its third decade, we salute it, pray that
wisdom will be at the heart of decisions about its future, and remind
you that, if you use anything electronic today, you've probably got Java
to thank for its doing what it does. Especially if it breaks. ยต
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