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Queue Bryan Cantrill's (DTrace, Joyent) USENIX talk on Oracle and Larry Ellison: https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=2034 https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=2034

techntoke 7y ago
I really don't want to watch a long video. Is there a link that lays out his thoughts in text?
- neilv 7y ago
  The video has a text slide, but perhaps the more pertinent assertions are: * Oracle was extremely straightforward about caring about only money. (In contrast to Sun, or even to the claims of investment banks.) * Oracle was that way because it was the alter-ego of Ellison. (With funny bit about not attempting to anthropomorphize Ellison.) (What Cantrill didn't mention, when alleging Ellison's simplicity, was Ellison's supposed intense competitiveness with, or hatred of, Bill Gates. I happened to bump into Ellison once, at an event, and seemed to see a hint of that firsthand.)
- dralley 7y ago
  Timestamp 33:40
- thesausageking 7y ago
  I linked to 34:00 min in, which is where the part on Oracle and Ellison starts and is only a few minutes long (and very funny). Bryan talks about his experiences being at Sun after it was acquired by Oracle and the sad demise of OpenSolaris.
- andyjohnson0 7y ago
  Quote: "As you know people, as you learn about things, you realize that these generalizations we have are, virtually to a generalization, false. Well, except for this one, as it turns out. What you think of Oracle, is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle. And I gotta say, as someone who has seen that complexity for my entire life, it’s very hard to get used to that idea. It’s like, ‘surely this is more complicated!’ but it’s like: Wow, this is really simple! This company is very straightforward, in its defense. This company is about one man, his alter-ego, and what he wants to inflict upon humanity — that’s it! …Ship mediocrity, inflict misery, lie our asses off, screw our customers, and make a whole shitload of money. Yeah… you talk to Oracle, it’s like, ‘no, we don’t fucking make dreams happen — we make money!’ …You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don’t anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it’ll chop it off, the end. You don’t think ‘oh, the lawnmower hates me’ — lawnmower doesn’t give a shit about you, lawnmower can’t hate you. Don’t anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don’t fall into that trap about Oracle." Source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170246
  - scarface74 7y ago
    How is this different from VC tech companies with no foreseeable path to profitable where the VC backers only hope is an acquisition or pawning their money losing investments off to the public market?
    - CharlesColeman 7y ago
      Those are small, and we haven't all used their products or been affected by them in some way or another.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        I don’t think Uber or Lyft could be considered small products that most of us haven’t used st one point.
alasdair_ 7y ago
I worked at Sun in Menlo Park in the 2002 post-bubble sadness, when the satellite buildings were slowly being closed and the free coffee was being scaled back. I remember vividly a town hall with Johnathan Schwartz as the speaker (he was briefly CEO but wasn't at the time). One of the engineers, after hearing a speech full of buzzwords but no substance asked "Okay, but how does this actually make us money?" The engineer was politely told to shut up, focus on engineering and leave the "making money" part to the businessmen. We all know how that worked out. RIP Sun.
- nikanj 7y ago
  To be fair, I think the businessmen did do most of the "making money" in the subsequent Oracle acquisition.
Sniffnoy 7y ago
Minor note, the word you're looking for here is "cue", not "queue".
- quaquaqua1 7y ago
  In a figurative sense, one could theorize that the speech is being placed in a queue (line) of things to talk about next.
  - dreamcompiler 7y ago
    There's usually a reasonable sounding justification for word or phrase misuse. "Wreck havoc" sort of makes sense because something got wrecked and the correct "wreak" is rarely used outside of that phrase. A "mute point" makes sense because the point is now silent and the correct "moot" is an uncommon word outside legal circles. People who abuse power need to be "reigned in" because it vaguely sounds like they are acting too much like a king, even though "rein in" is correct and it comes from pulling in the reins of a horse to get it under control. Just having a reasonable sounding explanation doesn't make it correct.
jcranmer 7y ago
I'm surprised he didn't bring up the joke about what Oracle stands for... One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison.

techntoke 7y ago

I really don't want to watch a long video. Is there a link that lays out his thoughts in text?

neilv 7y ago
The video has a text slide, but perhaps the more pertinent assertions are: * Oracle was extremely straightforward about caring about only money. (In contrast to Sun, or even to the claims of investment banks.) * Oracle was that way because it was the alter-ego of Ellison. (With funny bit about not attempting to anthropomorphize Ellison.) (What Cantrill didn't mention, when alleging Ellison's simplicity, was Ellison's supposed intense competitiveness with, or hatred of, Bill Gates. I happened to bump into Ellison once, at an event, and seemed to see a hint of that firsthand.)
dralley 7y ago
Timestamp 33:40
thesausageking 7y ago
I linked to 34:00 min in, which is where the part on Oracle and Ellison starts and is only a few minutes long (and very funny). Bryan talks about his experiences being at Sun after it was acquired by Oracle and the sad demise of OpenSolaris.
andyjohnson0 7y ago
Quote: "As you know people, as you learn about things, you realize that these generalizations we have are, virtually to a generalization, false. Well, except for this one, as it turns out. What you think of Oracle, is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle. And I gotta say, as someone who has seen that complexity for my entire life, it’s very hard to get used to that idea. It’s like, ‘surely this is more complicated!’ but it’s like: Wow, this is really simple! This company is very straightforward, in its defense. This company is about one man, his alter-ego, and what he wants to inflict upon humanity — that’s it! …Ship mediocrity, inflict misery, lie our asses off, screw our customers, and make a whole shitload of money. Yeah… you talk to Oracle, it’s like, ‘no, we don’t fucking make dreams happen — we make money!’ …You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don’t anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it’ll chop it off, the end. You don’t think ‘oh, the lawnmower hates me’ — lawnmower doesn’t give a shit about you, lawnmower can’t hate you. Don’t anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don’t fall into that trap about Oracle." Source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170246 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170246
- scarface74 7y ago
  How is this different from VC tech companies with no foreseeable path to profitable where the VC backers only hope is an acquisition or pawning their money losing investments off to the public market?
  - CharlesColeman 7y ago
    Those are small, and we haven't all used their products or been affected by them in some way or another.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      I don’t think Uber or Lyft could be considered small products that most of us haven’t used st one point.

alasdair_ 7y ago

I worked at Sun in Menlo Park in the 2002 post-bubble sadness, when the satellite buildings were slowly being closed and the free coffee was being scaled back. I remember vividly a town hall with Johnathan Schwartz as the speaker (he was briefly CEO but wasn't at the time). One of the engineers, after hearing a speech full of buzzwords but no substance asked "Okay, but how does this actually make us money?" The engineer was politely told to shut up, focus on engineering and leave the "making money" part to the businessmen. We all know how that worked out. RIP Sun.

nikanj 7y ago
To be fair, I think the businessmen did do most of the "making money" in the subsequent Oracle acquisition.

Sniffnoy 7y ago

Minor note, the word you're looking for here is "cue", not "queue".

quaquaqua1 7y ago
In a figurative sense, one could theorize that the speech is being placed in a queue (line) of things to talk about next.
- dreamcompiler 7y ago
  There's usually a reasonable sounding justification for word or phrase misuse. "Wreck havoc" sort of makes sense because something got wrecked and the correct "wreak" is rarely used outside of that phrase. A "mute point" makes sense because the point is now silent and the correct "moot" is an uncommon word outside legal circles. People who abuse power need to be "reigned in" because it vaguely sounds like they are acting too much like a king, even though "rein in" is correct and it comes from pulling in the reins of a horse to get it under control. Just having a reasonable sounding explanation doesn't make it correct.

jcranmer 7y ago

I'm surprised he didn't bring up the joke about what Oracle stands for... One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison.