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Oracle slashes 30k jobs

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Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#831

Post by amiga386 »

nocommandline wrote: post #750
amiga386 wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Enlighten me on what I would use Oracle Oracle buys smaller enterprise companies with rich customers that were already using Oracle DB, or makes them rely on it, then cashes in on licensing. So for example, they bought Micros (most EFTPOS terminals in the world are powered by them, I think), they bought Cerner (big supplier of IT to healthcare companies), they bought PeopleSoft. If your big company isn't using SAP,…

Oracle used to have EBS which competed primarily in SCM/Procurement (or ERP) domain. They acquired the leaders in HCM (PeopleSoft) and CRM (Siebel) domains and combined them all (SCM, HCM, CRM) into a single (new) product called Fusion. Their pitch also was - PeopleSoft and Siebel required people with different skill sets (PeopleCode for PeopleSoft, Siebel eScript for Siebel); but with Fusion, customization would not…

I presume what that actually means is that the Java programmer needs to learn the now-Java APIs of what PeopleCode did, and the now-Java APIs of what eScript did, and they're all probably JavaBeans...

But I suppose that does help a company get staff in the door if the job advert just says "Java programmer", they won't be immediately scared off.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#832

Post by nedt »

pfortuny wrote: post #600
jimkleiber wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if companies understand the emotional impact on the laid off and the layoff survivors. It almost seems like a terror campaign, whether intended or not.

Do not say “companies”. They are managers who do this. It is them who are to blame.

Managers do know. Some of them are better at it than others. But even for the best it never is easy. And they are still humans, don't go to harsh on them with your blame.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#833

Post by makeitrain »

da_chicken wrote: post #558
smoyer wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"At the time, MySQL existed ..." You had to be careful with MySQL back then as constraints were syntactic sugar but not enforced. PostgreSQL was indeed much tougher to manage but more full-featured.

Really, you've always had to be careful with MySQL. It really was the PHP of RDBMSs. The silent "SHOW WARNINGS" system, nonsense dates like Feb 31, implicit type conversions like converting strings to 0s, non-deterministic group by enabled by default, index corruption, etc.

Good enough for Wordpress.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#834

Post by genthree »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #99
shepherdjerred wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not unethical to lay someone off

When done for profit maximizing reasons it's not any worse than capitalism itself, but then this degrades into whether capitalism is ethical which is off topic

There’s weirdly-weak evidence that the layoff-happy strategy is actually better for long term company health than trying to retain workers through down periods. Like, it’s kinda just something you do now because it’s “how things are done” but it wasn’t always that way, and it might not even be the right call for profit-maximizing.

Basically, yet more management by fad.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#835

Post by genthree »

Synthetic7346 wrote: post #682
WalterBright wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, you picked two systems that are heavily interfered with by the government. Back in the Great Depression, my great grandmother got sick and was hospitalized, and they took care of her until she passed. My grandfather did not have enough to pay the bill. The hospital told him not to worry, just pay what he could. It took him a while, but he paid the bill in full.

Heavily interfered how? Canada / UK / Australia have healthcare which is "heavily interfered" as you call it, and they're better off for it

Whoa now.

Consider that getting the government out of healthcare would mean all the rural hospitals close.

Consider who that would most-hurt, while saving you money, before you jump to the humanitarian position. Consider it in light of the 2024 election.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#836

Post by oblio »

bcantrill wrote: post #730
oblio wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, at least it's better than your other one. https://landley.net/history/mirror/linux/kissedagirl.html

For whatever it's worth (perhaps not much?), I was actually asked about this three-decade-old post (!) recently on the Peterman Pod[0], which allowed for a slightly more nuanced discussion. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhSL-5GtmQM&t=3757s

Yeah, I know, I think you were 25 or something back then :-)

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#837

Post by nedt »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #657
IshKebab wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The realistic alternative is to regularly cut a smaller number of people, which is awful for morale.

Does it have to be awful for morale if the reasoning is clear and compassionate? People understand that shit happens. And I don't mean this in a mean or evil way, but (of course there's a but) I wonder if this would motivate people to work more effectively as well. My organization has had cuts lately, but it hasn't in a decade. It has been transformative. People are reminded that their jobs depend on them showing up…

People tend to be bad in estimating the performance of others and are almost always bad in estimating their own performance. So you end up with people asking themself why it wasn't them and if they will be next. And management can't tell you you are safe, because it might change - and if they promise they can only do that once.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#838

Post by nedt »

wnevets wrote: post #308

Very often people will defend these kind of layouts as the result of overhiring but then shouldn't the leadership that over hired 30K people also be held accountable?

So you are saying they shouldn't have given those 30k people a job to begin with? I don't know if that's any better.

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#839

Post by augusto-moura »

makeitrain wrote: post #833
da_chicken wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you've always had to be careful with MySQL. It really was the PHP of RDBMSs. The silent "SHOW WARNINGS" system, nonsense dates like Feb 31, implicit type conversions like converting strings to 0s, non-deterministic group by enabled by default, index corruption, etc.

Good enough for Wordpress.

We are circling back to PHP, aren't we?

Re: Oracle slashes 30k jobs

#840

Post by augusto-moura »

KellyCriterion wrote: post #830
sharadov wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SQL Server was pretty good until they went the Oracle way with their licensing shenanigans, but even with that they were a lot cheaper than Oracle. In fact SQL server was one of the few great products that came out of MS.

For the risk of getting downvoted: MS SQL is today stil a very good product, using it now for more than 20 years in different applications. And: The free version with max up to 50 GB (?) of DB size is a very good option for smaller environments/apps

50GB sounds like nothing, but I believe you in the quality. Most big bucks paid databases need to be high quality though, otherwise they would fail as products
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