6 ms·

Man, Oracle really does not give a shit about its reputation.

nickpeterson 11y ago
Some background on the shift to Oracle from Bryan Cantrill (creator of DTrace at SUN Microsystems) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc He wasn't thrilled about it.
- krebby 11y ago
  Best quote from this video (there are a ton): "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison".
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- reiger 11y ago
  Bryan is a smart funny guy, but he's an opinionated asshole that represents everything wrong with silicon valley engineer "rockstar" culture. I didn't rewatch the video, but have seen it and met him dozens of times back in the OpenSolaris then Joyent days. He seems to simplify things to portray cause and effect that do not exist due to the complexity of real life. I trust his ability to engineer a brilliant product, but I don't trust his ability to create a lovable product - it's all about the engineering goodness to him, and not solving the real world problems. Joyent's financials and yearly change of directions will probably back that up... Oracle is Oracle - there are good things and bad things about a process driven company with 2000 products, but understand there is massive bias in Bryan's video - he didn't get his way and he wants people to know it.
  - nickpeterson 11y ago
    Oh, I understand that, but I find the video entertaining, and I will say that I often have trouble finding viewpoints from places like Oracle, IBM, and SUN. Ever notice how there are tons of videos/tech talks from Microsoft, Google, and the Open Source crowd, but places like Oracle/IBM/SAP it feels very vaulted?
    - reiger 11y ago
      As a former product manager from one of the vaulted companies we had tons of video around business benefits and use cases, but very little on the implementation part. Look for the curated video channels for the big vendor players.
dogma1138 11y ago
You wouldn't give a shit either if you could get nearly 10bln dollars for it. Most people would sell their mother for that amount, and it's a bit hard to come to your investors and say well guys we could've gotten 10bln which would give you a heck of a dividend but we cared about our reputation too much so we passed on it.
- crispyambulance 11y ago
  Yeah, but how much have they expended on this legal adventure already? It has been going on for ~6 years now and there's no end in sight, no clear victory for anybody. Doesn't Oracle have better things to do?
  - dogma1138 11y ago
    Considerably less than 10bln, say even if they spent 100m on legal fees, that's still about 1% of what they would end up earning that's 1:100 return on investment no one would in their right mind would pass on that.
    - crispyambulance 11y ago
      OK, but it is still a roll of the dice and there are costs beyond legal fees. 1:100 is _highly_ unlikely. Lawsuits are a crappy way to make money for a software company.
      - nxzero 11y ago
        Creating a startup to service the CIA is a pretty crap move too; Oracle's launch was largely fueled by creating the database for the CIA in the late 1970s.
        dogma1138 11y ago
        You mean like Google(Keyhole/Google Earth) and Facebook which both received funding from the CIA through their investment company In-Q-Tel? https://www.iqt.org/ https://www.iqt.org/
mercurial 11y ago
Big Corp doesn't care about this sort of thing, and Oracle's reputation in the community can hardly get any worse.
- veb 11y ago
  Big Corp doesn't care when it comes to potentially getting $10 billion dollars, that's for damn sure. How many people here would just go "oh nah, it's OK... go ahead, we don't want any money. Do your thing Google!".
ilostmykeys 11y ago
Oracle is a dumpster for talent.

Some background on the shift to Oracle from Bryan Cantrill (creator of DTrace at SUN Microsystems) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc He wasn't thrilled about it.

krebby 11y ago
Best quote from this video (there are a ton): "Don't make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison".
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
reiger 11y ago
Bryan is a smart funny guy, but he's an opinionated asshole that represents everything wrong with silicon valley engineer "rockstar" culture. I didn't rewatch the video, but have seen it and met him dozens of times back in the OpenSolaris then Joyent days. He seems to simplify things to portray cause and effect that do not exist due to the complexity of real life. I trust his ability to engineer a brilliant product, but I don't trust his ability to create a lovable product - it's all about the engineering goodness to him, and not solving the real world problems. Joyent's financials and yearly change of directions will probably back that up... Oracle is Oracle - there are good things and bad things about a process driven company with 2000 products, but understand there is massive bias in Bryan's video - he didn't get his way and he wants people to know it.
- nickpeterson 11y ago
  Oh, I understand that, but I find the video entertaining, and I will say that I often have trouble finding viewpoints from places like Oracle, IBM, and SUN. Ever notice how there are tons of videos/tech talks from Microsoft, Google, and the Open Source crowd, but places like Oracle/IBM/SAP it feels very vaulted?
  - reiger 11y ago
    As a former product manager from one of the vaulted companies we had tons of video around business benefits and use cases, but very little on the implementation part. Look for the curated video channels for the big vendor players.

dogma1138 11y ago

You wouldn't give a shit either if you could get nearly 10bln dollars for it. Most people would sell their mother for that amount, and it's a bit hard to come to your investors and say well guys we could've gotten 10bln which would give you a heck of a dividend but we cared about our reputation too much so we passed on it.

crispyambulance 11y ago
Yeah, but how much have they expended on this legal adventure already? It has been going on for ~6 years now and there's no end in sight, no clear victory for anybody. Doesn't Oracle have better things to do?
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Considerably less than 10bln, say even if they spent 100m on legal fees, that's still about 1% of what they would end up earning that's 1:100 return on investment no one would in their right mind would pass on that.
  - crispyambulance 11y ago
    OK, but it is still a roll of the dice and there are costs beyond legal fees. 1:100 is _highly_ unlikely. Lawsuits are a crappy way to make money for a software company.
    - nxzero 11y ago
      Creating a startup to service the CIA is a pretty crap move too; Oracle's launch was largely fueled by creating the database for the CIA in the late 1970s.
      - dogma1138 11y ago
        You mean like Google(Keyhole/Google Earth) and Facebook which both received funding from the CIA through their investment company In-Q-Tel? https://www.iqt.org/ https://www.iqt.org/

mercurial 11y ago

Big Corp doesn't care about this sort of thing, and Oracle's reputation in the community can hardly get any worse.

veb 11y ago
Big Corp doesn't care when it comes to potentially getting $10 billion dollars, that's for damn sure. How many people here would just go "oh nah, it's OK... go ahead, we don't want any money. Do your thing Google!".

ilostmykeys 11y ago

Oracle is a dumpster for talent.