Oracle Boss Says OSS Needs Big Business

Rob writes "Oracle Corp's CEO, Larry Ellison, has maintained that open source projects are only successful when major technology corporations get involved and doubted that open source will have a major impact on the software areas in which the company operates. Speaking at Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo Ellison also confirmed that the company had inquired about acquiring open source database vendor MySQL AB and denied that Oracle's recent open source acquisitions were designed to harm its rival."

In other news,

[Rob T Firefly]

the CEO of General Mills has declared that breakfast is only successful when big business gets involved, the Maverick playing cards company has concluded that games of chance are only successful when big business gets involved, and the Louisville Slugger company have announced that bludgeoning people with baseball bats is only a success when big business gets involved.

Nice link title

[bj8rn]

In the blurb, it reads: ...and denied that Oracle's recent open source acquisitions were designed to harm its rival, whereas the link (also in the Related Links bar) to the article itself reads Oracle's recent open source acquisitions were designed to harm its rival. Nice editorializing, mate.

Note To Larry Ellison:

[aquatone282]

Since every Oracle product/patch I have used has required intensive research of user forums (because your customer support site Metalink sucks balls) to get it to work properly, what exactly is the difference between your product and and open-source product other than the fact that you make your customers pay ridiculous sums for the privilege of debugging your software?

P.S. You're an asshole Larry.

Signed,

An Oracle Customer

Re:Gaim?

[dylan_-]

Where would Debian be without IBM (and other companies) supporting Linux kernel development?

Exactly the same place. IBM's contributions haven't made it into Debian yet...

(Joke! I'm joking!)

Larry Ellison - Iraqi Information Minister

[HangingChad]

There are no MySQL's within a 150 miles of Silicon Valley! We will drive the infidel open source hoardes into the sea! MySQL tables will become bloated with corrupt data and their data bits will rot in the desert. Their administrators will wail and lose their jobs as they and their children beg in the street for scraps of data. Our glorious Oracle army will rise up and smite the invader!

Re:Note To Larry Ellison:

[k4_pacific]

O.R.A.C.L.E. == One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison.

Re:Maybe I'm missing it, but...

[Yvanhoe]

Probably about a million people using it. Is IRC successful? Cause thats one of my open source projects.

Sheeeesh, my open source project is Internet then, bigger than yours!

Re:"Mission critical"

[poot_rootbeer]

When Larry Ellison say "mission critical", naturally he means "customer installations large enough that Oracle's revenues would be notably reduced if they migrated to an open-source alternative"...

Re:Maybe I'm missing it, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Think about it.

1. Big business has ignored BSD; BSD is dead.
2. Big business embraces Linux; Linux thrives.
3. Q.E.D.

Ellison is right.