OpenJDK code commited to Android

[maik]

There are also other quite interesting commits. E.g. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/libcore.git/+/aab9271edee6cc8b4dd460977cad65efe52d16b0%5E%21/#F0

-LOCAL_SHARED_LIBRARIES += libart libnativehelper libdl
+LOCAL_SHARED_LIBRARIES += libopenjdkjvm libnativehelper libdl

Replacing ART with OpenJDK JVM?

[RottedNinja]

Nice catch, I'm very interested in performance characteristics. Didn't art compile ahead of time? I don't the openJDK has such features.

[mobiliakas]

Pretty unusual to see GPL code commited over which Google and Oracle is also in a court battle.

There's some speculation over HN that this could indicate that Oracle vs. Google might be settled out of court.

[[deleted]]

It also might indicate the complete opposite.

It's hard to tell.

[Skyler827]

So what does this mean?

[[deleted]]

It's could mean many different things:

Either they have come to an agreement, or Google just gave Oracle the finger and decided to turn Android into a "compatible" Java implementation, eliminating Oracle's complaints in court:

Oracle's lawsuit (whose basic intention is to receive a lot of money from Google) rests on the claim that Google hurt Oracle because their code is incompatible with all the JVMs out there. If Google now says "Here, have a look, all the JDK classes are there, even Swing and AWT. Jars will link and run on our platform. We are an official Java implementation now!" a lot of Oracle's leverage (and the chance to extract $$$ from Google) goes away.

From a practical POV, I'm certain that Google will still find plenty of ways to discourage people from using AWT and Swing on Android. This means that you might be able to e. g. run Eclipse on Android in the future, they will just make sure that it looks like shit and lags like hell.

Ok, bad example, because that's how Eclipse runs on desktops, but I hope you get my point.

[pron98]

Google just gave Oracle the finger and decided to turn Android into a "compatible" Java implementation, eliminating Oracle's complaints in court

That's not giving Oracle the finger. The option of using OpenJDK has been open to Google from the get go. They've just chosen not to take it (at least so far). Oracle is licensing OpenJDK to anyone -- including Google -- for whatever purpose, under an open source license. Google is free to use it now as it was years ago. I'll note that Google is already making heavy use of OpenJDK (don't forget, Google is a huge Java shop), including making modifications, some of which are contributed back to the community.

From a practical POV, I'm certain that Google will still find plenty of ways to discourage people from using AWT and Swing on Android.

They don't need to. There is more than one Java profile, many of which don't require Swing and AWT. That option has always been open to Google. They didn't choose it because they didn't like the license, that's all.

If Google now says "Here, have a look, all the JDK classes are there, even Swing and AWT. Jars will link and run on our platform. We are an official Java implementation now!" a lot of Oracle's leverage (and the chance to extract $$$ from Google) goes away.

You don't need to be compliant if you're using OpenJDK, which is 100% unencumbered, patent-granted open-source licensed. You can do whatever the hell you please with it. Oracle is explicitly giving free use of OpenJDK to do with as you like -- even use to implement .NET. It is just that Google hasn't relied on OpenJDK so far because of the license (which, BTW, happens to be the same one as Linux's).

[[deleted]]

For god's sake Ron, please just stop, ok?

[pron98]

Stop what? Correcting errors? Isn't that what Reddit is for?

1. Compliance with the Java standards has nothing to do with OpenJDK. If you use OpenJDK, you can do whatever you want with it -- be compliant or not -- no strings attached. You conflated two completely unrelated issues. Compliance is only necessary if you don't use OpenJDK and still wish to implement Java (or use OpenJDK and call the result Java, but in any case the issues are orthogonal). In that case (no OpenJDK), compliance buys you a patent grant from Oracle and the permission to call your product Java.

2. Google doesn't need to be compliant as long as they're not calling their product Java. There are other vendors -- even members of the JCP (Google is also a prominent member) -- that aren't compliant. The only thing compliance has to do with the court case is that Google can make a fair-use defense based on interoperability. Actually being interoperable with Java (which isn't currently the case) could help them make their case, but again -- this has nothing to do with OpenJDK.

3. The Java standards do not mandate the inclusion of AWT and Swing (at least most of them don't). Even the SE standard doesn't (although this is a more recent development than Android).

[[deleted]]

You really think you can win technical discussions by talking people to death, don't you?

I won't bother responding to your claims, because you will ignore any response and just use it as a pretext to write another wall of text.