Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hey Larry, can you sue Google for me? -Steve Jobs

Posted: 18 Aug 2010 08:40 AM PDT

We've been hearing about this messy legal battle between tech giants Oracle and Google all week long. It started when Oracle filed a patent and copyright lawsuit against Google for allegedly infringing Java-related intellectual property in developing Android operating system. I'll skip the more technical details regarding the lawsuit as they have already been published on various news sites and blogs. But if you want to be further enlightened, you may read this and this.

I've read several comments as to the main reason behind the lawsuit and most of them point to Oracle being greedy and wanted Google and others who have benefited from using Android to pay a huge some of money or royalty. Although I partly agree that Oracle is the evil party here and wanted to bring in more money out of Java any way they can, I'm still not convinced that it is the primary motivating factor on why they are suing Google.

Oracle knows that this is going to be a long and costly legal war and it is far from certain that they are going to win. And if ever they get lucky and win, we may see the end of Java and Android so it would still be Oracle's loss in one way or another. The backlash from the open-source software community is also expected, which can already felt by now so it's bad PR for Oracle. So, why did they took the risk and went on to sue Google?

The mastermind here could be the greedy Steve Jobs. He may have convinced his BFF (best friend forever) Oracle CEO and founder Larry Ellison to sue Google after knowing Android is now eclipsing the iPhone in smartphone sales. Never underestimate the convincing power of Jobs.

Steve Jobs loves his iPhone so dearly and he is so obsessed with it that he will do everything he can to crush its competitors. And the main competitor at the moment is any Android-powered phone. Earlier this year, you may remember that Apple sued HTC Corp., Google's key partner in the mobile phone market and manufacturer of Nexus One.

Steve's new baby, the iPad, is also competing head-to-head with Android-powered tablet computers. So imagine how much Jobs hates Android at the moment.

This may sound like conspiracy theory but I think Steve has greatly influenced (probably using reality distortion field or whatever) his best friend Larry on making Oracle sue Google. It is as simple as that.

What do you think?