Why Oracle should do something about the Apple fiasco

I very strongly dislike Apple and after this latest stunt even more so. Seriously.

Sometimes, people wonder : why should Oracle do something about the situation when it's pretty obviously Apple's decision that lead to this. So, here I go:

1. Apple has nothing to lose by not supporting Java on OSX. So, they might lose a few thousand (tens of thousands? maybe...) Apple laptop toting java developers. It's a drop in the sea of iPhone, iPad, and iPod sales. So, maybe the same number of devs might not buy the next OSX upgrade - whooptie doo...

2. Oracle owns Java. They have wanted to "own" Java for the longest time, they even bought a whole company (Sun), hardware and all, just to get their grubby hands on it. Now, they own it and when Apple drops the ball, it's now up to Oracle to step up to the plate and show what "owning" the platform really means to them.

I'm sure Adobe would like if Apple produced their own compatible Flash for OSX, but Apple doesn't - Adobe does. Why ? 'Cause they own the platform.

3. Oracle has the most to lose from this development - if Java doesn't run on MacOS, then much of the wonderful cross-platform claims of Java become somewhat gimpy as now Java will not run on a fairly mainstream modern client OS. Not very cool, especially since Java (based on Oracle's own statements) wants to be on the desktop.


From a personal perspective, I could care less about Java on Apple (although I did sign the petition as well). Up until now, I would have recommended it to people acknowledging it being a decent OS. Going forward, despite my dislike for Microsoft, I'd probably just recommend Windows 7. Not that this matters all that much, not too many people ask me.

Finally, why are people are asking Oracle to do something and not Apple ? Really, it makes so much more sense to appeal to the company that caused the problem in the first place. However, as much as Oracle has been sucking in their relationship with the community lately, they are light years away from Apple's blindness and deafness to the needs of their customers when those needs happen to be at odds with the cult leader's ideas (e.g. no flash on iphones yet despite ample evidence that it's a part of a modern web experience, even for the mobile web)

Apple and Java Devs - enough is enough !

There was a line in the iRobot movie with Will Smith where he says "Somehow 'I told you so' just doesn't cut it..." after the chick in the movie finally saw how her robots actually malfunctioned and tried taking over the world (which Will Smith had been telling her all along).

Anyway, Apple has been on this trajectory for the longest time. Even since MANY years ago Jobs had promised that he would make the mac the best platform for Java developers, a whole bunch of java devs have been lugging macs to conferences trying to look cool and consoling themselves with the thought that "it's actually Unix underneath, and it's pretty, so it's perfect". All that despite that Apple has been dissing them for the longest time - I remember how at first it felt weird when Apple deprecated some quicktime java bindings, then came more and more rare java releases, then it took forever for Java 6 to come out, then the same paranioia moved into iphone, ipad, flash... the list goes on and on..

I do have an appreciation for the fervor with which Mac fans defend their platform of choice. I'm the same with Linux . Sometimes I would jump through some hoops that I probably would not have to go through if I was working in Windows. However, if tomorrow Linus Torvalds ( or some other cult figure in the community who could make that decision) came out and said that Linux is not going to run Java anymore (for some real or imaginary philosophical reason), despite my love for so many of the characteristics and ideas behind Linux, and despite my strong dislike for Windows and Microsoft, I would just switch to Windows. Seriously, I earn my livelihood with and because of Java, and if my OS vendor told me that my OS is not going to support me in earning my living - guess what - I will be switching my OS vendor.

Sure, there will probably be ways to continue to somehow run Java on Macs in the foreseeable future . Sooner or later Oracle probably come up with some Java version that somehow runs on a mac. You could probably run some unofficial build (e.g. from OpenJDK) that kinda works, or maybe you could run a Windows or Linux VirtualBox image and run the Java inside of that. But come on - as a Java developer , how many times does one need to be told that he/she is not wanted and shown the door ?

So, here comes my call for action (of course as a Linux fanboy_:-) ) . I hear that these days Macs run on Intel hardware anyway - whip out that copy of Ubuntu that you always said you'd try and take it out for a spin. Or try Fedora - it's quite decent. Worst case scenario - I've seen my better half use Windows 7 and it seems to be OK ( she doesn't curse it as much as XP ) - it does run Java, and if you've ever dealt with technologies you're already used to some level of hassle.

Apple Brainwashing puzzle

I write software for a living. As a result a lot of my favorite software developers at work and in my communities (e.g. Tapestry, Grails, NetBeans) are Mac users. On one hand, I accept the fact that, hey, they like their Mac, just as much as I am passionate and like my NetBeans for example. However, there are a couple of things that I haven't been able to grasp yet.

All of the people I'm talking about are very smart and very independent. Yet, at the same time, Apple has managed to run some kind of brainwashing trick, where anything Apple comes up with and anything Apple says is taken at face value. Here are a couple of glaring examples:

• A year or however long time ago, Apple decides to do their iPhone thing. Great, nice device, cool glitzy graphics, all that. All of a sudden, everyone from a large number of my coworkers to the people on the Oscars buys an iPhone. That is all well, but the more puzzling part is how most people just swallow the garbage coming from Apple without questioning it. For example, I bet that 90% of the iPhone users still think that iPhone was the first device that had a full blown browser that doesn't need the content to be specifically formatted for mobile devices ( while I've been happily browsing on my Nokia E61 for 1-2 years before the iPhone came out, mind you with the E61 happily running a KHTML derived browser, the same browser that Safari extends as well).
  
• Apple decides to release their SDK and to allow 3rd party Devs to distribute their apps for iTunes. That is all great, nice thinking, good way to screw the walled garden of the network operators (ironically, by creating a new walled garden, this time controlled by Apple). So, all of a sudden, everyone believes ( I spoke to a very smart coworker of mine, listened to the Java Posse) that this is the first attempt where a non-operator sets up a distribution mechanism where 3rd party devs can certify and distribute their apps. Rewind to 2-3 years before the iPhone SDK launch, and I was happily exploring the Nokia Catalogs (on my phone) that has a whole bunch of free and commercial applications for download (that have nothing to do with the operator, the same "independent" software distribution channel that Apple claims to have invented).
  

The list can go on and on. What really puzzles me is that Apple can throw these outrageously false claims, and all of these smart and independently thinking people that I know just eat it up, without questioning it for a second. What drove me over the edge was when I was listening to a Java Posse interview where they were discussing the release of the iPhone SDK and how Apple supposedly "owned" the device and that Apple was within their right to lock the device as much as they want and go to great lengths to restrict what kind of software could be on it (e.g. starting from the "locked" phones, going through the clauses in the iPhone dev kit that prohibits its usage for creation of VMs, including Java). That is the biggest steaming pile of BS that I've heard . Yeah, I know that when you get the software you don't actually "own" it, you license it, but I can't believe my ears : if I had spent $400-$500 on a device you better believe it that I will want to have as much control over it, I OWN the goddamn thing. Now, if it was someone other than Apple (e.g. think Microsoft), all of these smart people would be up in arms calling for boycotts of the device and the company and who knows what else. But when it's Apple, people just suck it up.

So, people, let get our senses back and start thinking a little bit more critically about the garbage that comes out of Apple's brainwashing machine. I know they make nice products and all, but let's not lose our senses every time they say something and examine it for what it really is : a company pushing their products and very selfishly looking out for its own interests.

Better Mac/PC ads

Alright, these are hillarious. I'm always really annoyed by the really lame snotty ads that apple runs, so, here are a couple of REALLY good answers to that... Funny as hell here