On Aug 13, 11:32 am, Quzanti <quza...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > The only two implications I can think o > (1) Hardly helpful for people's confidence in the Java Platform, if > Oracle embarks on these kind of surprise antics. May push people > towards CLR. If Oracle start getting aggressive, then everyone will > start worrying who they will attack next.
That's the issue. Gosling has mentioned that during management meetings in the wake of the Oracle acquisition of Sun, the Oracle attorneys were salivating over JVM licensing; the issue is Oracle seeing such lawsuits as an attractive revenue stream, and what effect that will have on the Java market for the long term. In the short term, the java market is huge in the server space, and it looks promising in the mobile space. In the desktop client space it's essentially dead because Sun killed it by suing Microsoft over a noncompliant implementation. What Sun got out of that suit was a nice short-term benefit (a lot of cash from the settlement), and a major long-term loss, as Microsoft replaced their nonconformant JVM with a new VM and source language that were just different enough to be invulnerable to additional suits. Oh, and a thriving desktop client market in which Java participates not at all. The concern is that, if Oracle sees lawsuits over technical noncompliance as an attractive revenue stream, then they'll go about suing everyone with deep pockets who has any involvement with Java, with more or less the same effect that the Sun suit against Microsoft had--or at least sowing enough anxiety and confusion to have a chilling effect on the Java market, and making the JVM look less attractive as a platform. Again, in the short term it's unlikely to have much effect, because the existing Java ecology is so large and rich. The long term is more of a crapshoot, though, and the uncertainty there certainly makes it a good idea to make Clojure as able as possible to survive independent of any particular VM. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
