This may put a crimp in the Java shops out there…

According to the register Oracle has begun shaking down companies that use Java for some rather steep fees. It appears that they slipped bits of less than free code into the various packages they’re distributing and are now targeting companies that have managed to step on the click-through license terms for serious cash.

I can’t say I’m at all surprised…Larry’s folks have made if clear that they intended to monetize Java since they bought Sun. Given Oracle’s rather predatory and underhanded past exploits, this approach seems in line with what could have been expected.

Java is not a bad environment for many types of development, but this change should make most places think twice (or three times) about adopting it if they’re not already in the stew. I’d expect that even OpenJDK would be a concern as the cost of defending a suit, even it you win would likely be crippling to most mid-sized firms.

I rather expect this may be a boost to Mono and perhaps to C++ and similar native languages where possible. It will be interesting to see how much traction the nasties at Oracle can get and how quickly the community will untangle the licensing mess they’ve created.

I’m guessing that we’ll either see a major slowdown in Java adoption or a successful effort to detangle the language from the dark lords at Oracle and create a truly open source variant. Only time will tell which way this is going…

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