"Google Totally Slimed Sun" Says Java Father

Father of Java and former Sun employee James Gosling has weighed in on the legal furore around Android's use of the programming language, claiming that "Google totally slimed Sun." With the courtroom battle between Oracle – which acquired Sun and its Java patents – and Google picking up for its second week today, Gosling echoed Sun cofounder and chairman Scott McNealy in accusing the search giant of seriously infringing the company's technology.

"Just because Sun didn't have patent suits in our genetic code doesn't mean we didn't feel wronged" Gosling wrote on his personal blog. "While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun."

Nonetheless, former Sun employees didn't exactly present a unified face in the courtroom. Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz recounted telling Android lead Andy Rubin that Google had, in effect, Sun's blessing to make use of Java. "These are open APIs, and we wanted to bring in more people" Schwartz said in court, "we wanted to build the biggest tent and invite as many people as possible."

Gosling, though, claims Schwartz is trying to put a positive spin on the incident, just as he says happened back when Android's use of Java – with no payments to Sun – was first identified. "We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan" Gosling insists. "He just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun."