The magic happens in the byte code to byte code recompilation. Basically this means Android uses java's byte code as an object format. So unless there is something magical about providing interoperability and compatibility, which are absolutely, legally allowed, I'm not sure what Oracle is complaining about.
From what I understand, Google's patent infringements do not relate to the use of Java as a language or Java byte code to Dalvik conversion, but mostly relate to the general use and implementation of a virtual machine in general.
Microsoft
I personally prefer the direction Intel was going with Moblin/Meego to Android. I wonder if this means Intel is going to leave Meego development up to Nokia?
I suspect both MeeGo and Android x86 are just part of Intel's plan to drive the Atom market. At the end of the day, they probably don't really care what OS is running on it.
Life is really too short to be idealistic about freaking phone apps.
I agree, but that's the reason I chose not to buy an iPhone. My N900 which runs Linux allows me to install anything I like, and with Easy Debian installed I have access to thousands of ARM Linux apps. So far, I've been able to take the source and build anything I've needed that's not available in the repositories.
Twenty bucks says you're converting from DOS line endings (\r\n) to Unix line endings (\n).
There, fixed that for you.
It should have been obvious this would happen. A few years back Square shut down a 3D Chrono Trigger remake project.
Assuming they did not rip off too much, they should just rename the game, characters, locations, redraw the character sprites so they bare no resemblance and then release like that. If they are still not happy and are feeling daring, they can later "leak" a patch which changes everything back to as it was originally intended.
Where there's a will, there's a relative.