Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Oracle and Sun - uninformed comment

Just like the rest of the Internet - here's some uninformed thoughts on the Oracle-Sun deal:
  1. GlassFish vs WebLogic (and erstwhile OAS). I suspect that GlassFish 3 has had it from Oracle's perspective. It'll carry on as an unsupported, but great, open-source project.
  2. NetBeans vs JDeveloper and Eclipse. Goodbye NetBeans. Like GlassFish it will carry on, but wither on the vine.
  3. MySQL vs Oracle DB: Support and Sales. Well, there's some wondering in the blogosphere as to who at Sun actually works on/supports MySQL now, but, be that as it may, Oracle can now sell you (cheapish) support for MySQL. So SMBs outgrowing their roots can get infected by Oracle sales, and Enterprises can run the many MySQL-based apps.
  4. MySQL vs Oracle DB: Migration and up-sell. I still expect some sort of automated MySQL to Oracle DB product, and/or a MySQL-api call into the data in an Oracle DB. Ease of Migration.
  5. JVM and Java language. And the JCP. I expect Java to become more open. Why? Kudos. Looking-good. (While still selling tons of expensive WebLogic, DB, etc., etc. licences). Plus it will be good for Java (and hence Oracle).
  6. That pesky hardware business. Sun's ailing hardware business is what has brought the once-huge company to it's knees. Dell and HP make perfectly good (and rather scalable) x86-64 servers. The vast majority of people do not need E25Ks. Honestly - will it be wound down - sold off to HP or even the fledgling Cisco? Or can the expensive software vendor make the case for a one-stop shop to customers? "Here, our hardware is pricey too, but you get our excellent support - all in one place"
  7. Sun xVM and Oracle VM. One will stay, one will go. (Sorry - stating the obvious there).
  8. (Open)Solaris and Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL). Is Solaris (Sun's other millstone) just legacy now? Does OpenSolaris really offer throughput advantages over Linux? Will ZFS become GPLd and available in Linux or a commercial addon to OEL? Does btrfs offer all of ZFS' feature set (should have researched that bit, sorry). I suspect Solaris is history, like Netbeans. In 5 years, it will be a fond memory.
The Sun is dead, long live the Oracle. Dear Oracle, please look after Sun and Java, we've had a lot of good times together, and we want it to continue.

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