next iteration of Android OS will move away from Oracle's Java to OpenJDK

[zMeul]

source: http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/29/google-confirms-next-android-version-wont-use-oracles-proprietary-java-apis/

 

 

 

 

As an open-source platform, Android is built upon the collaboration of the open-source community. In our upcoming release of Android, we plan to move Android’s Java language libraries to an OpenJDK-based approach, creating a common code base for developers to build apps and services. Google has long worked with and contributed to the OpenJDK community, and we look forward to making even more contributions to the OpenJDK project in the future.

 

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why is this happening?

 

back in 2010, Oracle, the new owner of Java API (previously owned by Sun) took Google to court for copyright violation by including 31 Java API within Android

the the case was originally won by Google - in 2012, the judge ruled that the Java's structure can't be copyrighted

 

Oracle took the battle to the US Court of Appeal - in 2014, a three-judge panel determined that “a set of commands to instruct a computer to carry out desired operations may contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection”

 

in 2015, The Supreme Court rejected Google's appeal - Oracle won

[Dabombinable]

That's actually a good thing. Java may be used a lot but TBH it still sucks.

[Xenift]

Yeah java is extremely slow because of how it works.

[Geralt]

System.out.print("Bye oracle");

[zMeul]

System.out.print("Bye oracle");

you know the funny thing about this ... OpenJDK is Oracle's open source API 

[Geralt]

you know the funny thing about this ... OpenJDK is Oracle's open source API

System.out.print("We meet again oracle.");

[Misanthrope]

Any chance of taking this opportunity to not using anything resembling the P.O.S. that is Java? No? We'll just invite another fucking Oracle lawsuit? Fine Google, it's your time wasted anyway.

[Jade]

Any chance of taking this opportunity to not using anything resembling the P.O.S. that is Java? No? We'll just invite another fucking Oracle lawsuit? Fine Google, it's your time wasted anyway.

So let's be very clear here... this is what you're saying:

"Any chance we could use this as a chance to literally rewrite Android and inherently destroy compatibility with at least 50% of what's on the app store now.... if not more?"

[Phillyphries]

So let's be very clear here... this is what you're saying:

"Any chance we could use this as a chance to literally rewrite Android and inherently destroy compatibility with at least 50% of what's on the app store now.... if not more?"

 

lol, pretty much what It hought

[Misanthrope]

So let's be very clear here... this is what you're saying:

"Any chance we could use this as a chance to literally rewrite Android and inherently destroy compatibility with at least 50% of what's on the app store now.... if not more?"

 

True, but hasn't Android been infamous for it's fragmentation anyway? Sure it might be taking a step back but they've gotten away with it before and that's why most phones never actually got a fucking update and you have 1000 and 1 versions of android on 1000 and 1 different hardware versions.

 

They seem to want to correct that, yet they want to keep training devs to use a wasteful, high level API because fuck it: we can cram in an 8 core chip with 4gb of ram and idiots will keep buying better and better hardware for no good reason.

[Jade]

True, but hasn't been infamous for it's fragmentation anyway? Sure it might be taking a step back but they've gotten away with it before and that's why most phones never actually got a fucking update and you have 1000 and 1 versions of android on 1000 and 1 different hardware versions.

 

They seem to want to correct that, yet they want to keep training devs to use a wasteful, high level API because fuck it: we can cram in an 8 core chip with 4gb of ram and idiots will keep buying better and better hardware for no good reason.

Fragmentation is going nowhere and just rewriting Android from the ground up (with a potential compatibility layer as well) isn't an option. The reason Apple devices (not trying to make this Apple vs Android) stay updated so long is because their code has to work on maybe 40 different devices all running very similar hardware. Android has to work on all sorts of hardware, obviously with drivers and whatnot. The literal only solution to solving fragmentation is to remove the trashy OEM skins you'll inevitably get from every other manufacturer (Samsung's Touchwiz, anybody?). And no OEM is going to switch to the rewritten Android when not only does it have a trash app library -- with only partially-functional legacy app support at best, but they also have to rewrite their skin from scratch then keep it updated.

 

tl;dr:

Fragmentation isn't easily solvable. Yes, it's Google's fault for allowing them to modify it, but if they didn't, would any OEMs have picked up Android for their device in the first place? The only real blame you can place is on the OEMs for being trash to their customers. 

[Misanthrope]

All that is reasonable, but not the point: Your concern is a major switch would cause fragmentation and lots of program rewriting, yet that's already happening and we agree on it so is it really that bad that I suggested switching away from Java? Yes it's difficult but they've gotten away with fragmentation before, now that they're on a leading position they could do it again and the result would be a notable increase in performance and efficiency. Someone, somewhere might actually be able to code a mobile game that doesn't sucks a metric ton of ass through a straw. 

[QueenDemetria]

True, but hasn't Android been infamous for it's fragmentation anyway?

In terms of apps Android isn't really fragmented, its mostly the out-of-box experience and the varying features that makes Android fragmented, but pretty much all Android devices can most apps(with the obvious exceptions). Rewriting Android so that it doesn't use Java would break (basically) all apps, and all apps would need to either be translated or completely re-written to work on the new platform. This would be a huge step for Google, and since their platform isn't bad at the moment there really isn't much need to make that drastic of a change.

[Doobeedoo]

Java sucks, it's really slow though -.-
Just rewrite Android and screw app store huehue xP

[LukaP]

All that is reasonable, but not the point: Your concern is a major switch would cause fragmentation and lots of program rewriting, yet that's already happening and we agree on it so is it really that bad that I suggested switching away from Java? Yes it's difficult but they've gotten away with fragmentation before, now that they're on a leading position they could do it again and the result would be a notable increase in performance and efficiency. Someone, somewhere might actually be able to code a mobile game that doesn't sucks a metric ton of ass through a straw. 

Well idk the SoC guys are doing pretty great keeping the performance high enough to be able to support this high level language. So why move from it. Yes its ugly, Yes its slow, but developers know it well by now, so its really useless to try and change it. Also, if youre writing an android game in Java youre doing it wrong. C++ is the way for that

[deviant88]

Well idk the SoC guys are doing pretty great keeping the performance high enough to be able to support this high level language. So why move from it. Yes its ugly, Yes its slow, but developers know it well by now, so its really useless to try and change it. Also, if youre writing an android game in Java youre doing it wrong. C++ is the way for that

I dont know much about java except how to install it and print hello world but C++ is driving me nuts ...

 

Anyway this move seems weird to me, they move away from oracle java's to open source java? thats like a rip off pretty much, but if its legal i couldnt care less.

I would care if the android apps of tomorow would stop randomly crashing or eating more RAM than on a PC, because of this move then yes.

 

So this happens because Google has some beef with Oracle, meh...

[ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName]

I wish they would just move away from java altogether.

[Trixanity]

I've always wondered: to what extent does Android use java? Is it only for apps or does other parts of Android use java as well?

(a bit off topic I know)

[zacRupnow]

How about moving back to the perfect UI of KitKat and throwing away the piece of shit UI they screwed us with in Lollipop and Marshmallow. 

[Paranoid Kami]

This article is completely wrong and misleading. The author doesn't know the difference between API and implementation and what OpenJDK actually is.

 

Android is still using the exact same Java API that is supposedly owned by Oracle. But the implementation is switching from Google's own version, which was based on Apache Harmony (a now dead open source project) to Oracle's own open source implementation, which is OpenJDK.

 

This means there will actually be more code from Oracle in Android, not less. Take a look at the imported files in the "ojluni" folder: they all include an Oracle copyright statement in the header, while the old files in the "luni" folder have an Apache copyright notice instead.

 

This article should be titled: "Google confirms the next version of Android will fully embrace Oracle's OpenJDK".

 

 

Found this post by 'Blade Coder' in the comments of the article.

[Pomfinator]

How about moving back to the perfect UI of KitKat and throwing away the piece of shit UI they screwed us with in Lollipop and Marshmallow. 

+1, I didn't understand and probably never will understand what was wrong with Holo.

[patrickjp93]

Yeah java is extremely slow because of how it works.

Not extremely. It's between 1/2 and 1/3 the speed of good equivalent C++ code. Python is slow.

[AlTech]

3 Billion Devices run Java. And that's NOT a GOOD THING. Thank god Java is going away. I hate Java.So inefficient!

 

Why not just make Android using C++?

[Linus_torvalds]

3 Billion Devices run Java. And that's NOT a GOOD THING. Thank god Java is going away. I hate Java.So inefficient!

 

Why not just make Android using C++?

 

Oh that's my new year wish

It would be so fast on hardware that we have today in our smartphones.

[suicidalfranco]

3 Billion Devices run Java. And that's NOT a GOOD THING. Thank god Java is going away. I hate Java.So inefficient!

 

Why not just make Android using C++?

Good thing Android is open source, right? XobotOS, aka Android rewritten in C#