I just don't buy that everyone is equally a bad actor here. Even if we take for granted that Google are two faced liars who secretly love patents, their public messaging is completely different. Google repeatedly has come out against them. The members of Rockstar brag about their patents, even flaunted them in the iPhone announcement. That difference is enough to make me draw a line in between the companies.<p>Of course, as Gruber's mocking of Android's openness has shown, he believes attempting to live up to an ideal and failing somewhat is worse than not even trying. At least when it comes to Google.
So in Gruber's mind, if someone drops a bomb on your country, and you launch a retaliatory strike, you're just as bad.<p>The timeline here would be instructive. Microsoft and Apple sued and threatened Android OEMs first. Apple's CEO is on record as practicing 'thermonuclear war'. Steve Ballmer gleefully cheered about their patent licensing. Both companies love patents. Jobs "and booooooy have we patented it!"<p>Weaksauce attempt by Gruber at drawing an equivalence.
Life very rarely presents us with simple black & white choices, but that doesn't mean that it's not important to make distinctions among distinctly different shades of gray. Don't let party apparatchiks like Gruber fool you with their smoke & mirrors. This is nothing more than an attempt by Apple & Microsoft to accomplish in the courtroom what they have failed to achieve in the marketplace. We have it straight from the Cupertino horse's mouth that this is a "nuclear war" designed to destroy Android.<p>If this succeeds it will set a very dangerous and chilling precedent for the development of any new technology going forward. Anyone that claims to value innovation and opportunity for new ideas should condemn it.
<i>The difference between Lodsys and Rockstar is that Lodsys is a bully, suing small (and in some cases, downright tiny) companies that lack the financial wherewithal to fight back. And in fact, when Lodsys’s targets do fight back, Lodsys runs away — settling for nothing in order to avoid a trial. Rockstar may be a patent troll, but they’re a patent troll that at least is picking on someone its own size.</i><p>Lodsys is _almost_ the antihero here. They are just being exploitative which is dumb and obnoxious. If only they were explicitly attacking Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle's ecosystems. Dishing out the abuse towards their small innocent customers. Using the system these companies have expanded and propped up to really hurt them. And say, "Hey, this is what we are doing. Maybe you should fix this Congress."
The patent system is to blame here.<p>Android is shipping on more units than any other OS and Google is going to win if things continue this way based on current trends. They are probably not far away from getting Android to a similar level of polish as iOS within the next few years. There's only so much you can improve on in terms of the OS software before you hit the point of diminishing returns.<p>At this point, the trends are clear, Google will win the mobile OS war. There is really no other likely outcome at this point unless Apple does something drastic.<p>In business, it is pretty much expected that public companies will act in the best interest of its own stakeholders, so this lawsuit was just something that had to happen. You can't blame Apple or Microsoft for this. This is what you do as a business to protect your products and removing your barriers to entry, or you fall off the mobile rocket ship.<p>Also, honest question, but why do people get so upset over this blog? I just looked up John Gruber on Wikipedia and his full time job is maintaining a blog to write about Apple products, with a history of being an "Apple Apologist". We're we expecting him to write something different?
From what I've understood he is actually defending and white knighting Apple's patent trolling.<p>For anyone still in doubt whether Gruber is actively paid by Apple (and possibly others) to deliver viral marketing - here you go.
So Rockstar - an NPE patent Troll by definition - filing lawsuits against Google & Samsung is the same as Motorola filing lawsuits according to Gruber.
Except Motorola has - you know - actual products that it sells. Additionally this company was created by the Apple + M.S Cartel explicitly to go after Google and Android - not to create any value, only to harass and stifle a competitor.<p>Sometimes Gruber gets so wrapped up in his own B.S. that he starts defending the scummy actions of Apple - sad.