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"Larry doesn't care about openness or community -- he holds them in contempt. What he cares about is winning. And this was his way to prove it." That's a bette
by sogrady 16y ago
"Larry doesn't care about openness or community -- he holds them in contempt. What he cares about is winning. And this was his way to prove it."
That's a better way of putting it than anything I came up with. To give credit where credit is due, his approach has produced for the firm. And his disdain for communities like Linux (e.g. Oracle's Linux distribution) and OpenSolaris (e.g. the leaked memo) has not cost the firm much on the public markets thus far.
But the same was once true of Microsoft, and now they have felt compelled to attempt a difficult, long term rehab of their public image. Which makes one wonder whether a similar effort from Oracle is not an If, but rather a When.
- andrewljohnson 16y agoOracle does not sell consumer software, so the image issue is mostly irrelevant.
- sogrady 16y agoRespectfully disagree. Reputation and image are important if yours is poor amongst a community that influences buying decisions. Traditionally, this hasn't really been the case with Oracle, as their products are still adopted up the food chain from most developers who might be expected to have a poor image of Oracle. The question is how long this remains the case, and what impact a poor image will have on hiring, partnership, investment in the Java ecosystem, and so on.