[Lazarus] Embarcadero vs Lazarus/FPC (Oracle vs Google)

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 8 May 2012 14:07, Andrew Brunner <andrew.t.brunner at gmail.com> wrote:
> Oracle is telling google that that it is UNACCEPTABLE for google to take
> creative ownership over Java.  This problem goes far beyond copying of some
> API.  Google as made and Oracle product - and Oracle is not happy.

This applies exactly to FPC and Lazarus as far as I can see.
Borland/Embarcadero created a product (eg: like Sun/Oracle did with
Java), then came the community and made a new competing product -
based on the API of Borland/Embarcadero (like Google did).


> Recent versions of Delphi come with some parts FPC or Lazarus, this fact
> alone says signals their acceptance of FPC and Lazarus.

I may be wrong, but as far as I know Delphi XE2 only uses FPC for
compiling ARM/iOS executables. Delphi XE2 doesn't use anything of
Lazarus.


> Lastly, API stands for Application Programming Interface.  So in order to
> Interface with an API, both sides of the code MUST be identical.

FPC and Lazarus are not interfacing with Delphi, they are cloning
Delphi functionality and API [with some minor tweaks of there own],
and making a competing product. As far as I can see, this is exactly
what Google did with Java - and Oracle is not happy with this. In a
similar situation Microsoft tried this before [with Java] and Sun won
the case there.


At the moment anyway, it seems that if you are a developer in Europe,
you are still safe to use FPC and Lazarus (as Žilvinas quoted link
shows). But for anybody else, this is a bit worrisome. :-(  I guess we
will just have to wait and see what the judge decides.

-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -