Comment Re:I'm glad (Score 1) 344
It would've been incredibly irresponsible of Oracle to allow Google to create a wholly incompatible "Java" under the Java name.
This is the part I really don't understand. My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that Oracle is going after Google for patent, not trademark violations. From what I can see, this has nothing to do with any trademarks being used inappropriately. Rather, it has to do with Google implementing a solution based on the published Java specifications. I haven't read the license that those specifications are published under. However, I'd guess that they do not grant license to freely use the specifications to generate code that could compete with Java.
So I'm not sure where all the discussion about trademark violation is coming from. Did Oracle claim trademark, as well as patent, violations? As to the future viability of Java, I'm not sure that any of this will really have an impact. So far, it only seems to matter if you want to reimplement Java. You can make the case that several embedded device manufactures do want to reimpliment Java, because of hardware limitations. It will certainly impact those interests. It may come about that those interests will create the next popular language that meets their needs, rather than use Java. However, I do not see it having an impact on Java, where it is commonly used today.
A little off topic, but I do find the cell-phone environment interesting. Everybody seems to want to exclude cell-phones from general computing. It is fascinating to watch all of these big companies fighting over who can do what on these little devices. It is very similar to the way modern warfare works. Everybody is afraid of the big patent war, much like the cold war's nukes. However, the players still want to test out their war-craft. So they pick small targets (cell phones or 3rd world countries) to do their battle.