Tim Bray joins Google

WEB GURU and until recently, Sun employee, Tim Bray has announced that he has joined Google and will be working on the firm's Android platform.

In a blog post, Bray excitedly announced his new position, explaining, "Google and I have been a plausible match for a long time. Web-centric, check. Search, check. Open-source, check. The list goes on. We've talked repeatedly over the years, but the conversations all ended at the point when I said "...and I don't want to move to the Bay Area". Then that changed.

Having sat through a number of meetings with Googlers, Bray was offered a remote role, and will remain in his home town of Vancouver as he assumes the position of Developer Advocate.

He admits that he has a lot to learn about the operating system, and has set himself the task of developing an application himself.

Apparently Bray had another offer on the table to stay with Sun and join Oracle. Reading between the lines, we do not think that this appealed to him. "I'd had an offer to stay with Oracle which I decided to decline," he said. "I'll maybe tell the story when I can think about it without getting that weird spiking-blood-pressure sensation in my eyeballs."

Apple also got a dose of the open source fan's sharp tongue. Comparing Android devices to the Iphone, he said, "The Iphone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger."

Our own Nick Farrell couldn't have put it better himself. µ