Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Oracle slashes 30k jobs

rollingout.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 890 posts

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#511

Post by prepend »

seanhunter wrote: post #248
kyledrake wrote: post #157

The bulk of the comments in here are focused on comparing Larry Ellison to a lawn mower, so I'll try a new tack and say that I'm genuinely confused at what the value prop of Oracle is. Given the history of their business model being licensing of important databases that are hard to switch off of, I've actually made a point to avoid using Oracle as much as possible (even so far as to leave MySQL when they acquired it,…

Short answer: today I think there is genuinely nothing that anyone should use oracle for, but their database used to be seriously far ahead of the competition. A very long time ago (circa 2000) there were basically 2 databases that worked for use cases where you needed high availability and vertical scalability and those were Oracle and Sybase and Oracle was really the only game in town if you actually wanted certain…

I disagree as I was running clustered sql server 6.5 and 7 in 1998 for hundreds of concurrent users doing millions of reads per hour on NT basically commodity boxes. Replaced it with Oracle for 100x cost and lost performance.

I think even back then you were usually better off with distributed databases running mysql or postgres over Oracle. Although people liked to think a giant Oracle db was better.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#512

Post by mcmcmc »

dafelst wrote: post #2

More victims of AI. Not actually of "AI is replacing jobs", more "oh shit we are spending too much and the product isn't good enough for us to ever make a return on our absurd over-investment".

Is it AI or is it Larry subsidizing his dipshit son’s media exec fantasy/throwing money at Trump’s patronage system?

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#514

Post by prepend »

password4321 wrote: post #481
wilsonnb3 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, how was SQL Server perceived at the time compared to Sybase and Oracle? I know it originated as a port of Sybase.

SQL Server's claim to fame was GUI admin tools making life easier for many who bore DBA responsibilities only in anger. It remains one of the most reliable Microsoft products, but few would claim that is a high bar.

TOAD was fantastic for Oracle, though. I liked it better than SQL’s stuff.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#515

Post by lateforwork »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #328
lateforwork wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the alternative? Have 30,000 meetings? How long will that take?

Were those people not already having regular 1-on-1 meetings with a manager?

In many cases the manager is among those laid off. In fact some VPs and their entire org have been laid off.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#516

Post by ahtihn »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #115
troyvit wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the headline is not the best headline, but what it meant by "cold" is that there was no advance warning. So like cold-calling somebody, but to fire them, and an email instead.

Which I would definitely prefer. A couple of years ago, two weeks before Thanksgiving, management announced there would be layoffs. No timeline on when the cuts would be shared or number impacted. People had to sit around for weeks, wondering if they had a job. Should I buy Xmas presents? Who knows!

> Should I buy Xmas presents? Who knows!

If losing your job means you can't afford buying presents, isn't it good to know your job is at risk?

Better than buying presents and then getting fired right?

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#517

Post by niek_pas »

Aurornis wrote: post #508
ahtihn wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European, this seems normal? When someone is fired, they generally stop working immediately while getting paid through the notice period.

I have to be honest that I'm confused by the comment, too. Including the edit about how being out of work would be traumatic, as if losing a job was unique to the United States.

My point was that going from (let's say) 'employed, productive member of the workforce, with social relationships at work' to 'sitting at home collecting unemployment' with no transition, no coaching, in the scope of 5 minutes seems like a traumatic rupture.

(I'm not saying I _know_ better, just how I think I would _experience_ such a thing.)

Losing a job happens everywhere, but there are different ways to handle it, I guess.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#519

Post by mwcampbell »

Verdex wrote: post #417
mwcampbell wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DTrace was absolutely a product of pre-Oracle Sun, not Oracle.

Hey friend, check the user name of the person I'm responding to (and perhaps check out the people responsible for dtrace and larry ellison lawnmower comparisons). I might appear more coherent afterwards.

Yeah, I see what you mean now. Sorry.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#520

Post by Aurornis »

bux93 wrote: post #124

"Any unvested restricted stock units, however, were forfeited immediately." wow.

That's the definition of "unvested"

Anyone evaluating compensation and stock options should understand vesting periods and what they mean so they're not surprised by something like this.

Post reply on HN