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Comment by lawrenceyan | Hacker News Reader

It was slimy moves on Oracle's part through and through. It's like the only reason they chose to have acquired Sun Microsystems was so they could go and patent troll with it. Some seriously sad future that Oracle is heading towards if this is their definition of continuing innovation and growth.

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Also, don't forget that Ellison was a former Apple board member, and probably not entirely unbiased on giving Google a rough time, and thus rallied behind Jobs when he vowed: "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this." [0]

Of course, it was maybe just Ellison shrewdly leaping on a opportunity to profit off an undervalued ecosystem (Java) at the time. Going on almost a decade now, things certainly proved to be not so clear cut in Google favor, and might still pay off.

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-15400984

Seriously him and Jobs literally would wear matching "best friend" t-shirts.

I believe Ellison had to promise Jobs on his deathbed to continue to sue until Android is destroyed.

Oracle also needed a hardware business. Not a great one, but one that had customers.

I'd be cool with that story, if Oracle didn't go and sue Google like pretty much immediately after they finished acquiring Sun. They were 100% eyeing Android right from the start in my opinion.

The two motivations aren't mutually exclusive.

So basically the same reason that Google originally bought Motorola.

Where did Google use Motorola's patents offensively like a troll might? In the absence of an example, will you admit you are incorrect?

Well, Google had the opportunity to bid for Sun. The price was peanuts for Google. But they didn't pursue it, despite the risk. They brought this to temselves. And yes, Oracle behaves as a sleazy bag, but that was also common knowledge at the time...

That's like saying that you could have gone to the gun store and bought the gun that I am pointing at your head before I did. It wasn't very expensive and you could easily afford it. You really brought this robbery on yourself.

That actually describes the situation pretty well.

The analogy works if there's only one gun and I was offered it in an auction. I turned it down despite knowing you're very keen on robberies and in my neighbourhood. And I heard you're keen on buying it.

I kept the money and now you're using the gun to get the money I saved.

If we had a second round, this time with a machine gun... What would you do?

I'm still cross with Google. At the time it seemed like the natural home for Java.

Except that Google is not a friendly grandma, but a global thug that has its own gun arsenal, including the knock-off copy of a gun that was offered at the auction with a hefty discount.

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