Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
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Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
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Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#2I got the chance to talk to Gosling at a discussion about adding closures to Java a while back. You could tell immediately that he was an amazing and incredibly friendly guy. I have a ton of respect for him.
That being said, this is a really boring article. If there was anything meaty, he said he couldn't really say. The rest of it is that Oracle didn't pay him well and effectively demoted him. I feel like that is really unsurprising given Oracle's stance with Java and Sun stuff. They bought it strategically, not because they liked Java. Same for them with MySQL. They don't care, it's just another line item on their corporate acquisitions. The fact that they aren't taking the people they acquired seriously, even a fantastic guy like Gosling, is just another day at a mega corp.
Edit - grammar.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#3I worked at Oracle until very recently.
They are a rent-seeking, lawsuit-heavy cancer upon this Earth.
Oracle routinely sues its own employees.
Oracle routinely moves to stamp out innovation.
Oracle's stock price has increased over the past decade, but only from acquisition and price-gouging large corporations and agencies.
It is a racket. Working at Oracle is the antithesis of creating fun and useful software for everyone's gain.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#4I got the chance to talk to Gosling at a discussion about adding closures to Java a while back. You could tell immediately that he was an amazing and incredibly friendly guy. I have a ton of respect for him. That being said, this is a really boring article. If there was anything meaty, he said he couldn't really say. The rest of it is that Oracle didn't pay him well and effectively demoted him. I feel like that is re…
This has been my anecdotal experience with just about everyone I've ever known who works at or encourages use of Oracle. They just didn't seem to care about technology. They remind me of the handful of CS classmates I had at university who were only in the program because of high-salaried jobs in the industry... Needless to say, they didn't thrive.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#5> And the micromanagement Gosling says he felt may have been less of an issue at IBM. Specifically, Gosling says he felt the hand of Larry Ellison in nearly all the decisions affecting Java. Certainly IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano would not personally get his hands into the goings on with an acquisition, even a key one like Sun. But then IBM is not the house that Sam built like Oracle is Ellison's creation. There is a major difference in that.
Why the fuck has Larry Ellison sidelined the creator of Java in the development of Java in favor of himself making the key decisions? What qualifications does Ellison have to make these decisions? That's just colossally egocentric and incompetent.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#6I'd like to hear about his tenure at Google and why he left so quickly
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#7> And the micromanagement Gosling says he felt may have been less of an issue at IBM. Specifically, Gosling says he felt the hand of Larry Ellison in nearly all the decisions affecting Java. Certainly IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano would not personally get his hands into the goings on with an acquisition, even a key one like Sun. But then IBM is not the house that Sam built like Oracle is Ellison's creation. Ther…
Different incentives. Imagine a programming language team composed of a bunch of world class experts (expensive) worked on an amazing programming language that was a joy to use for millions of programmers worldwide and got a lot of academic interest and free work on it in the form of research etc. and they sold some books / support / services / consulting / certification / sponsorship that covered their salaries but did not bring in any more money than that. You and I would be very proud to be the corporation/manager that "owns" such a team, even if they don't make us a lot of money or increase the price of our stock options. But LPOD looks at this and tries to design it into a huge money maker. He realizes he cannot turn it into a long term cash cow like Oracle RDBMS but he can squeeze some profits out of it for a few years until it dies. Some profits is better than no profits. So that's what he does.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#8> And the micromanagement Gosling says he felt may have been less of an issue at IBM. Specifically, Gosling says he felt the hand of Larry Ellison in nearly all the decisions affecting Java. Certainly IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano would not personally get his hands into the goings on with an acquisition, even a key one like Sun. But then IBM is not the house that Sam built like Oracle is Ellison's creation. Ther…
“That's just colossally egocentric and incompetent.”
You forgot narcissistic. And those attributes explain why.
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#9I worked at Oracle until very recently. They are a rent-seeking, lawsuit-heavy cancer upon this Earth. Oracle routinely sues its own employees. Oracle routinely moves to stamp out innovation. Oracle's stock price has increased over the past decade, but only from acquisition and price-gouging large corporations and agencies. It is a racket. Working at Oracle is the antithesis of creating fun and useful software for ev…
> Oracle routinely sues its own employees.
For what?
Re: Why I Quit Oracle (2010)
#10Pretty much all you need to know about working at Oracle:
Making his point about the "creepiness," not only with Ellison but with Oracle's power structure, Gosling said he sparked a notion to try to improve morale amongst the Sun faithful who endured the Oracle acquisition. He said the company decided to rent out the Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., and allow the Sun folks to have a day of fun. Scott McNealy and Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz signed off on the project that came in well under budget and all systems were go, Gosling said. Except a few days before the event was to occur, Oracle Co-President Safra Catz got wind of it and put the kibosh on the thing.
"Safra found out and had a fit," Gosling said." The word came down that Oracle does not do employee appreciation events. So she forced the thing to be cancelled. But they didn't save any money because the money had been spent - so we ended up giving the tickets to charities. We were forced to give it up because it wasn't the -Oracle Way.' On the other hand, Oracle sponsors this sailboat for about $200 million."