Former Google employee and ‘Father of Java’ James Gosling says ‘Google slimed Sun’

James Gosling has had quite the run-around since he left Sun after Oracle bought the company. Never one to mince words, he set the record straight on his view of Google’s use of Sun’s Java:

Just because Sun didn’t have patent suits in our genetic code doesn’t mean we didn’t feel wronged. While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun.

Interesting perspective and interesting timing for the guy who went to work for Google after he left Sun with some hinted harsh words for Oracle. Gosling then left Google just a few months later for an Ocean robotics startup, but he never hinted at any ill will.

He told eWeek in 2009 that leadership was needed at the Android division (although, I can think of a lot of people who would disagree).

And what’s going on in the Android world is there’s kind of no adult in charge. And all these handset manufacturers are doing whatever they damn well please. Which means that it’s just going to be randomness. It could be let a thousand flowers bloom, but it also could be a dog’s breakfast. And I guess having been around the track a few times, it feels like it’s going to be more of a dog’s breakfast.