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Oracle sues Google over JVM technique related patent infringements – time for a Java fork?

patrick.c — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:07:17 +0000

Oracle starts to show his disrespect for the java ecosphere. Oracle published a press release on 12th august 2010 that they are suing Google about patents presumably used in android. This results in a lot of fear in the industry that they may be next. This hurts Suns former goal to make java a language that is widely used. There are millions of people out there who use java to earn a living. Is this on stake now? Would I as a company try to find alternatives now to mitigate the risk of Oracle go even more haywire? Of course I would. And if I’m getting familiar with the new alternative, then I’d switch over completely, when the new solution fits my needs. Why should I keep up the risky java business?

I think that Oracle did a great mistake by suing Google. But after all, java is kind of open source, it’s mainly protected by trademarks and obviously some patents, which sun should have donated to a separate organisaion long ago… So what can we do? Maybe we should use the open source spirit and show oracle that a blade can have two sides and start a java fork.

After all, there are plenty of JVMs out there, the specification if freely available. The language itself is standardized. Why not create a fork and get rid of code and features that is blocked by patents and invalidate as many oracle java/jvm patents by prior art as possible. Put the new ecosphere in the hands of a foundation that is lead by the interested companies and highly rated individuals from the java community to ensure that the cancer doesn’t come back. I am sure that google would be delighted to help in this process and I guess that IBM wouldn’t mind either to get rid of Oracle as gatekeeper.

We all play in a publicly available playground that has been build by a (presumably) nice guy and then a bully comes, takes over the nice guys business and starts kicking out some people whose face he don’t likes. What do you think? Should we keep playing or show the bully that he may have bought the playground, but without us, it will be pretty boring?

Fixed WordPress…

patrick.c — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:03:33 +0000

The wordpress installation was broken and the article links didn’t work. Now they should work again…

Preparing FrOSCon talk – agile open source development

patrick.c — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:59:26 +0000

In august I’m giving a talk on agile open source development. I have prepared an email with questions for open source projects that use or have tried agile techniques. If you know a project that may be interested to participate and get some coverage in the talk, please contact me at cornelis@pcornelissen.de

The talk will be in german, but after the conference, I’ll write a blog post here in english.

Google summer of code 2010 – students, apply now!

patrick.c — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:53:28 +0000

The projects have been chosen, now it’s up to the students to apply for certain tasks. So if you are a student and you have spare time left, need a little bit of money and you want to help the open source community, then go to:

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/03/students-apply-now-for-google-summer-of.html

And check the available projects and tasks :-)

Video of my (german) Froscon talk finally online

patrick.c — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:20:39 +0000

I held a talk about things to consider, when you’re starting an open source project and what you can do to keep it alive. The talk is in german (sorry, no subtitles, but the talk is the insparation for this blog, so you can more or less read what I have talked about here). I have fixed the sound, because the microphone had some minor problems. There are a few minutes where the sound is a little bit crappy.

See the video here: Froscon “Open Source Projekte starten und am Leben halten” auf Vimeo

Google summer of code – projects, apply now!

patrick.c — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:23:20 +0000

It’s time again. If you want google to pay someone, so he helps in your project, apply now!

http://code.google.com/soc

Citation from the gsoc homepage:

About Google Summer of Code

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

To learn more about the program, peruse our 2010 Frequently Asked Questions page. You can also subscribe to the Google Open Source Blog or the Google Summer of Code Discussion Group to keep abreast of the latest announcements.

Keep in mind:

Mentoring organization applications must be submitted by Friday, March 12, 2010 at 23:00 UTC.

Rest in peace Kenai – but not for long (UPDATE)

patrick.c — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:20:26 +0000

Oracle decided to shut down the public services of Kenai (the sun hosting site, that was announced on java-One last year). First I thought that the idea of combined standard services with a shared frontend for project hosting is dead. But today I received an email from the kenai admins and they clarified the oracle strategy. The Kenai infrastructure will be merged into java.net, so kenai is not dead, it has switched bodies ;-)

I am really glad that oracle has decided in this way!