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News Oracle snaps up Sun Microsystems

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 21 Apr 2009.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. interzen

    interzen Real men use chainsaws.

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    MySQL will survive, in one form or another - it's just that it won't be supported by Oracle *unless* they use it to replace the existing 'Oracle Express' product which, in my experience, wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. The codebase for MySQL has been forked at least twice that I know of so I think rumours of its demise are exaggerated. Quite apart from anything else, if your requirements aren't supported by MySQL then you'd probably looking at a more heavyweight database like Oracle anyway.

    There are a couple of interesting scenarios going round at the moment: the first is that Oracle may have to spin off and/or sell MySQL to avoid too much attention from regulatory bodies - an intriguing notion. Almost as intriguing as why the hell Sun paid $1bn for it in the first place. The second is that all the hype is unjustified as Oracle will become just another company capable of providing all the products you need, from chips up to software, in one package. Rather like IBM.

    I'm more concerned about what Oracle will do with Java - on the one hand if they can make the JCP process marginally less anal then I'm all for it. On the other, if they start applying their iniquitous licensing structures to it ... but again, as with MySQL, Java has enough momentum that making changes for anyone other than enterprise customers will be very difficult.

    Note that I don't work for Sun but my girlfriend does - other than the email from Schwartz yesterday, nobody has a clue what's going on.

    What I do know is that it's an ignominious end to a once-fine company, and the finger is pointing firmly at the top-end of management.
     
  3. DaMightyMouse

    DaMightyMouse What's a Dremel?

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    Come on over to .net and SqlServer 2008 where things just work ...
     
  4. interzen

    interzen Real men use chainsaws.

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    When they're available on Linux and Solaris, we'll talk. Until then, I'll stick with what does work for minimal outlay.

    Note also that the Sun/Oracle deal isn't carved in stone ... yet. Doing due-diligence etc. on acquisitions is never over and done with quickly, and with two companies of this size involved not only is the closing of the deal going to take time (Oracle reckon late summer - I reckon that's insanely optimistic) but there's plenty that could happen in the meantime. My predictions:

    - MySQL will either be sold off or spun off in some manner to avoid regulatory hassles.
    - Solaris and the various Sun storage products will stay more or less as-is. Scott McNealy wasn't bullshitting when he said that the
    majority of Oracle installations run on Solaris. Oracle will look to make more money out of them though.
    - Fujitsu get the hardware business - they fab the SPARC chips anyway.
    - Java - who knows? Oracle do use it a lot in their middleware apps. Netbeans and GlassFish will probably be killed off in favour of
    Eclipse and WebLogic, respectively.
    - McNealy and Schwartz will get nice, fat payoffs whereas anyone in R&D or hardware will get pink-slipped.

    If Oracle play their cards right this whole thing could work, but there's also a very real risk it could blow up in their faces. Depends on how badly Ellison wants a new yacht ...
     
  5. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    The problem is that MySQL is the database backend for an *huge* amount of websites, where it's used mainly because it's free and well supported. It's not feasible or economically viable for most websites to move to either MS or Oracle offerings. As Interzen said, if you're in a corporate environment, you're probably already using SQL*Server or Oracle anyway, so no change there.

    As for Sun's demise, I'll be mourning them, they were a great company in the day. I think they got a little complacent during the Internet boom in the 90s, where most websites were run on Sun hardware - they got caught out when other hardware manufacturers started producing smaller, cheaper webservers. They then invested heavily in the thin client solution, which flopped dramatically, and then they really just kind of lost their way after that. A shame really, they were a really good company to work for.

    I wonder what'll happen to all their head office buildings at Fleet now?
     
  6. interzen

    interzen Real men use chainsaws.

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    Me too.
    At the time I finished my first degree in the early 90s, a lot of the computer scientists I hung out with ended up working for Sun and you'd have found a lot of Sun hardware in computer science departments up and down the country. By the time I finished my PhD a few years later it was pretty much WinTel all the way (although much of my work was done on DEC Alpha machines ;-) )

    The thing that saddens me though, at least from the point of view of my past career as a research scientist, is that I strongly suspect that Sun's R&D will get absolutely massacred. This is a real pity, since over the years they've produced some really cool stuff beyond the obvious (eg. ZFS, DTrace etc.) but their inability to monetise it has led to the inevitable happening.

    That and inept management.

    I thought they were based in Camberley - I know that's where SWMBO went for a training course recently and she said it was taking place at the UK head office.
     
  7. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    Their head offices, a group of custom built buildings on Sun's own campus was at Fleet, J4A of the M3 to be precise. Their UK head office used to be in Camberley, but they moved to Fleet in something like 2003. I think they did keep the Camberley office as a DR site or something, though.
     
  8. The_Beast

    The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

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    It did wonders for there stock prices, $6.69 to $9.15
     
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