Oh, I’m sorry, have you been bored by the Sun-Oracle merger drama because it’s been all about MySQL and Java has been reduced to a baffled bystander? Well, get ready for some ancillary Java-related corporate drama that has the added benefit of being pretty hysterical!It seems that the Wall Street Journal in a recent editorial noted that SAP had sent a letter to Oracle proposing some sort of meet-up between the companies’ leaders; the WSJ speculated that this was in essence an offer on the part of SAP (which is based in Germany) to intervene with EU regulators on behalf of the troubled Sun-Oracle merger. Well, that certainly came as surprise to SAP! According to the company, the letter was actually a request that Oracle keep Java open, or perhaps even open it further; Oracle never actually replied to the missive, but did leak an out-of-context paragraph from it to the Journal to make it look like SAP was trying to help the merger along.No doubt partly in response to all this, SAP CTO Vishal Sikka put up a blog post covering what I assume is the same ground covered in SAP’s letter to Oracle. The opening paragraphs hit points that I think many people, particularly those not affiliated with Sun or Oracle, would agree with: Java ought to be more open, the JVM ought to be open source, and the Java Community Process ought to be under the control of an outside foundation, like Eclipse is. For extra burn, he even finds a 2007 quote from Oracle’s representative on the JCP to this effect. But then his next quote is from Mikhail Gorbachev. Because he finishes up the blog post memorializing the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and claims that in making his triumphant call for Java liberty, he is the moral equivalent of Ronald Reagan demanding that Gorbachev tear down the Wall. This is, to put it mildly, overstating things. Still, it’s nice to know that Java can elicit such passion, you know? Technology Industry