Google, Oracle, and Java

Apple has a cozy walled garden for its technology: Apple devices running Apple operating systems and Apple-approved apps written in Apple-controlled languages (Objective-C and now Swift).

Microsoft is building a walled garden for its technology. Commodity devices with standards set by Microsoft, running Microsoft operating systems and apps written in Microsoft-controlled languages (C#, F#, and possibly VB.NET). Microsoft does not have the same level of control over applications as Apple; desktop PCs allow anyone with administrator privileges to install any app from any source.

Google has a walled garden for its technology (Android), but its control is less than that of Apple or Microsoft. Android runs on commodity hardware, with standards set by Google. Almost anyone can install apps on their Google phone or tablet. And interestingly, the Android platform apps run in Java, a language controlled by... Oracle.

This last aspect must be worrying to Google. Oracle and Google have a less than chummy relationship, with lawsuits about the Java API. Basing a walled garden on someone else's technology is risky.

What to do? If I were Google, I would consider changing the language for the Android platform. That's not a small task, but the benefits may outweigh the costs. Certainly their current apps would have to be re-written for the New language. A run-time engine would have to be included in Android. The biggest task would be convincing the third-party developers to change their development process and their existing apps. (Some apps may never be converted.)

Which language to pick? That's an easy call. It should be a language that Google controls: Dart or Go. Dart is designed as a replacement for JavaScript, yet could be used for general applications. Go is, in my opinion, the better choice. It *is* designed for general applications, and includes support for concurrency.

A third candidate is Python. Google supports Python in their App Engine cloud platform, so they have some familiarity with it. No one company controls it (Java was controlled by Sun prior to Oracle) so it is unlikely to be purchased.

Java was a good choice for launching the Android platform. I think the languages Go and Python are better choices for Android now.

Let's see what Google thinks.