That is one interpretation; I can think of others.
> Do you think they wouldn't do the same against any Java fork with a realistic chance of supplanting their implementation?
I think they wouldn't sue anyone complying with their very clear, very standard OpenJDK license. Google, apparently, thinks the same, and has now decided to comply with the OpenJDK license, too.
> OpenJDK open but not a realistic choice in most production deployments
What? AFAIK, Google, Twitter and plenty other companies run their servers on OpenJDK. It is absolutely realistic for most production environments. In fact, Oracle's JDK differs from OpenJDK only in a few monitoring features.
> Oracle JDK/JRE remaining as de-facto gold standard; a process that forces strict compatibility tests on any competitor
That's just not true. The Java standard is the standard, OpenJDK is the reference implementation and one of the most widely deployed implementations.
> RedHat is not the only Linux build with significant marketshare,
Neither is Oracle's JDK. OpenJDK, IBM's JDK and Azul's Zulu all have good market shares.
> and I won't get sued if I write a different POSIX system.
Probably not, but you wouldn't get sued (or, at least no one ever has been sued) if you comply with OpenJDK's open source license. You may well get sued if you don't comply with Linux's open source license, too (which happens to be the same as OpenJDK's).
> and people outside do not seem to realize it
Perhaps, but what's the difference? If they start doing a bad job with Java (so far they seem to be doing fine work), the community will fork OpenJDK.
This is news to me. I'm aware there are differences, but "not a realistic choice"? Can you elaborate?
Lol, like that was a choice Google made freely, rather than something they were forced to do.
OpenJDK might be OK in many circumstances (as I said, requirements vary) but you might want to avoid that particular case study.
I asked for evidence for this bold claim, since many production environments I know are using OpenJDK successfully, under heavy loads and without crashing. So... evidence of your claim?
Hell, way back in the early 00s I remember having to use the JRocket JDK instead of the Sun one due to some weird corner case- so I am fully aware there are cases you can run in to that would necessitate one implementation over another. But calling OpenJDK unfit for production at this point in it's life is either FUD or straight lack of knowledge.
What are you running that OpenJDK seems to be so incompatible with? I've literally never had an issue with OpenJDK 7 or 8 and I've deployed applications that serve millions of requests per day in many flavors of OS.
The current situation (OpenJDK open but not a realistic choice in most production deployments; Oracle JDK/JRE remaining as de-facto gold standard; a process that forces strict compatibility tests on any competitor) can be fine from a certain point of view, but in practice it means that Java is not a traditional community-led OSS program. Rather, it's a program where the OSS community helps a company improve their software. RedHat is not the only Linux build with significant marketshare, and I won't get sued if I write a different POSIX system.
> at this point there's not enough motivation to do it.
No there isn't, that's what Rhaman is saying. But what he's also implying is that the direction of travel has changed inside Oracle, and people outside do not seem to realize it. IMHO it's fairly obvious where things are going (you'll stop "installing Java", and only develop and deploy in the Oracle cloud or similar Oracle-sanctioned environments).