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Comparing Java to .Net and C-sharp

Revision as of 12:51, 18 August 2010 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (moved Comparison of Java and Mono to Comparison of Java and C-sharp: Since Java is a language, it makes sense to compare it to C-sharp)

With Oracle's patent attack on Google's Java-like Dalvik, many people asked if Java's patent risk is similar or higher than that of Microsoft's Mono / C#.

Java C#
Who owns related patents? Oracle is the only company claiming to have relevant patents and showing aggression.
(There was also a Java patent owned by SCO, and probably sold to AST, but no holder of this patent ever showed intentions to enforce it.)
Microsoft is the only company claiming to have relevant patents and showing aggression.
What forms of aggression have the patent holders shown? Oracle sued Google in 2010 Microsoft has long history of using their patents against software projects and companies, including free software projects.
What reassurances have the patent holders offered? Oracle distributes OpenJDK under GPLv2, is a licensee of OIN, and the Java Language Specification includes a patent grant for fully compliant implementations (no supersetting or subsetting allowed) Microsoft gives the Microsoft Community Promise, which says:
Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation, to the extent it conforms to one of the Covered Specifications, and is compliant with all of the required parts of the mandatory provisions of that specification ("Covered Implementation"), subject to the following: [...]