In the perennial Mac vs. PC debate, Mac users have always been able to cite one incontrovertible fact as an argument for their side: the Mac is far less susceptible than a Windows-based PC to viruses and other forms of …

Ahead of a Java’s patent lawsuit against Google scheduled for April 16, a judge ordered on Friday that executives from both companies convene in order to discuss a potential settlement. Despite previous failed attempts to arrive at a settlement, Judge …

As you may have read, Google is being sued by Oracle, who claims Google is infringing on several patents it holds, related to Java. These patents came to Oracle through its recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property," said Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement."

Google has apparently acquired yet another company – Instantiations. This is a provider of Java and Ajax development tools.

As MG Siegler (who first reported the news) points out, the company is known for its Google Web Toolkit designer, which is likely the reason for the acquisition.

Instantiations greets its site visitors with the following message:

A new programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine is available thanks to a couple of Google’s developers.  Called Noop (pronounce it like an abbreviated version of "no operation"), the developers claim that it combines the finest aspects of other languages and attempts to guide users towards accepted best practices.

At Campfire One, an event where developers are invited to "talk shop" at the Google campus, Google announced a new set of features for App Engine that helps it interface more easily with existing technologies.

Microsoft has struck a search distribution deal with Sun Microsystems to provide its MSN Toolbar to U.S. based Internet Explorer users when they download Sun’s Java Runtime Environment platform.

It’s almost time to get in touch with one’s inner Java geek, and others, at JavaOne in San Francisco, May 6-9.

Call it a unit of knowledge, but beware of calling it a ‘knol’, as Google has applied to trademark the term.

Launching a new product? A new book? Or a new product? If it’s mass consumer-related, you might want to take a leaf out of FakeSteve (Jobs) book, Options.

Fake Steve Jobs (AKA Forbes senior editor Dan Lyons) has been penning the Fake Steve satirical blog of the Apple co-founder to the bemusement of folks in the Valley. With potrayals of Microsoft boss Bill Gates as “Beastmaster Bill” (both Bill and the real Steve are fans of the blog), it’s garnered nothing less than a rabid following.

Apple announced third-party apps for the iPhone. Sounds a LOT like Adobe’s new AIR. Delivers HTML and JavaScript apps down to the phone via Safari. What’s interesting is what Steve Jobs left out.

No Java. So, can’t run Kyte.tv’s application. Can’t run the Google Maps application I’m using on my Nokia. Can’t run something cool coming soon from eBay that I’m testing out. Can’t run Radar.net. Etc. Etc.

Java has long failed to woo Internet users on the client front-end. Flash was ruling it for years; but with the recent announcement of SilverLight from Microsoft, Sun could no longer stay behind. So, they are trying again with a consumer-flavored Java – JavaFX.

In November, Sun Microsystems moved to “open source” status for Java, after a decade of maintaining proprietary status for the portable programming language.

My thesis advisor keeps reminding me to frame the question correctly, otherwise the experimental results will be meaningless.

So, the news is official: (and yes, I agree with IBM’s question as to why Sun didn’t join one of the community projects focused on delivering open source implementations of Java SE, ME and EE instead of trying to build their own community.)

Matt Asay believes that Sun’s rumored move to put the Java SE reference implementation under the GPL shows that “Sun is one of the few BigCo’s” that really gets open source.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced the release of Java technology as free software under the GNU General Public License version two (GPLv2). The first portions of source code for Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) will be made available today.

IT Analyst James Governor from RedMonk has a posting about what IBM needs to do to get more involved in the web 2.0 world.

There’s a lot of confusion about what Sun actually intends to do when they use the term “open source java”.

Joshua Bloch has a good presentation outline called How to Design a Good API and Why it Matters.

New Atlanta, recently released Beta 1 of version 7 of thier BlueDragon CFML application server.