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A Story of O(racle)

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Re: A Story of O(racle)

#2

Post by protomyth »

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation

Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#4

Post by bad_user »

protomyth wrote: post #2

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

Having an engineering culture and fostering developer mindshare ... hasn't been a bad business choice for companies like Google or Apple or Microsoft (at least in their early days).

And last time I checked, all 3 companies mentioned are bigger in market cap then Oracle.

What strikes me is ... how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#5

Post by narrator »

protomyth wrote: post #2

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

I think Oracle is oriented toward selling to businesses that use technology the way tech startups use office furniture.

We don't want to take apart our office furniture and make it work more efficiently, or modify it and resell it to other businesses as part of a breakthrough interior decorating package. We want to sit on it and put our laptops on it and use it to get the other "real" work done.

So if you're in the road construction business and you need a HR system or a procurement system or whatever, you call some pricey consultants who call Oracle and you tell your accounting people to explain the problem and ask them how much its going to cost and you tell your IT department and accounting to spec it and do it and you fire them if it's not all done in six months and go back to your real work which is managing your highway building project out in Tallahassee.

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#6

Post by guelo »

bad_user wrote: post #4
protomyth wrote: post #2

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

Having an engineering culture and fostering developer mindshare ... hasn't been a bad business choice for companies like Google or Apple or Microsoft (at least in their early days). And last time I checked, all 3 companies mentioned are bigger in market cap then Oracle. What strikes me is ... how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

> how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

I'm sure the millions of dollars he got helped him make the decision.

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#7

Post by julius_geezer »

It has been a while (decade?) since I went to OOW. But as I recall I had no trouble finding technical sessions, if not at a level to engage Tim Bray. Many were about making your database run faster & better; some about using Oracle's favored tools of the moment (BC4J, possibly still some client-server stuff).

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#8

Post by TY »

bad_user wrote: post #4
protomyth wrote: post #2

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

Having an engineering culture and fostering developer mindshare ... hasn't been a bad business choice for companies like Google or Apple or Microsoft (at least in their early days). And last time I checked, all 3 companies mentioned are bigger in market cap then Oracle. What strikes me is ... how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

To the question of why it was sold to a company with such a vastly different culture.

Because it does not matter to the shareholders what kind of culture Oracle has. The only metric that mattered was how much money Oracle was willing to pay for Sun vs another bidder.

Using any other criteria would just launch a nasty shareholder lawsuit against Sun's soon to be departed management...

Re: A Story of O(racle)

#9

Post by chollida1 »

bad_user wrote: post #4
protomyth wrote: post #2

> The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship ... The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation Sadly, this is why Oracle could buy Sun and not the other way around.

Having an engineering culture and fostering developer mindshare ... hasn't been a bad business choice for companies like Google or Apple or Microsoft (at least in their early days). And last time I checked, all 3 companies mentioned are bigger in market cap then Oracle. What strikes me is ... how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

> What strikes me is ... how the fuck did Jonathan Schwartz allow the selling of Sun to a company who's culture is so different?

What makes you think he had a choice. The CEO isn't the only one, who gets to decide where a company is sold to. Infact his/her vote often counts for very little.

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