Oracle Pokes Android In The EyeOracle Pokes Android In The Eye

Oracle has already filed a lawsuit against Google for what it considers licensing violations in Android's implementation of the Java patents Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. That suit continues, but matters were just made worse by an Oracle pact with IBM that could leave the Java components that Android uses dying on the vine.InfoWorld reports on the agreement between IBM and Oracle and why the potential fallout for Android would be a setback. In order for Android to run Java, the environment that all of the third party apps run in, it relies on a version of Java called the Harmony. Harmony had major backing by IBM for its own needs and that was a good thing for Google. Someone else did the heavy lifting for that portion of Android.

Now IBM is backing off of Harmony and instead focusing on an open source version of Java with Oracle. This move by IBM is such a big deal it prompted one of Harmony's senior developers to bring Harmony to an end, favoring interoperability rather than fragmentation.

That means to keep Harmony alive, Google will have to lead the effort. Google is quite capable of doing so, but it will be a financial hit to a platform that generates no direct revenue. Of course, Google still has the Oracle lawsuit to contend with too. Without directly targeting Google though, Oracle has found another way to give them a poke in the eye.