Oracle, the Open Source Killer.

This post was originally published here.

 

    It’s a public secret that Oracle aims to destroy open source projects. According to their company policy and what they’ve done so far, I think I don’t have to tell you about it. But there’s something I really want to write about, in case you’ve forgot what Oracle’s true face is.

    Last five years has been the most difficult ages for open source projects and other innovative companies. But the truth is, Oracle’s acquires start at year 1994, they bought a company called Rdb Division of Digital Equipment Corporation. I assume that’s the starting point of modern Oracle Relational database. A list of Oracle’s acquisitions could be found at THIS PAGE. It’s pretty impressive list, I think. From databases to data-mining technology, banking industry solutions, virtual directory solutions even payment solutions. Wow, looks like Oracle’s building a huge net of modern community. I’m not a guy who can stop them, after all, Oracle is a company but not a charity and I totally understand that. 

    But this change doesn’t fix anything of its greed. I don’t have to remind you that Oracle is suing Google for Java patents in Android. This case might change the way we’re using Java, and we have enough reasons to believe it would. Just because Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison thinks they can profit from it doesn’t mean that they really can. Look back these years, Microsoft wants to kill most of the open source community, but did they win? Ten years ago, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft said "Linux is a cancer". Unfortunately, they hired Gianugo Rabellino and decided to be more open. The war between them is come to an end as Gianugo Rabellino said "we’re more open than you might think". Maybe it’s too early to say that, but I think this is a happy ending for all of us.

    Some days ago, iteye.com one of the most famous Java community in China, had received a letter from attorneys. It was Oracle again swung their fists to a little innocent company to threaten them for some kind of tort. It’s just only because iteye.com has a "Java" word in their domain name. Same things happened before, like JavaWord.com.tw had to change their logo. I know "Java" is a trademark of Oracle right now, but what I don’t understand is why iteye.com. So, maybe JavaScript has to change their name too? It’s like, if you’re gonna have a baby but you can’t name your child as "John". Because you don’t want to find someone else jump out and tell you "Hey, John is a trademark of my company, and you can’t use it". It’s just ridicules. 

    Thought Oracle never mentioned about domain name change, @Robbin, founder of iteye.com decided to change their domain name including logo after a long negotiation with Oracle, in order to keep off the future threatens might coming. A Java community which has been running for 7 years, ended. A website which has 800,000 registered users and 1,300,000 PV each day, vanished. Yeah, I am a huge fan of iteye.com and I’m really disappointed. It’s almost a massacre. Oracle bought BEA and soon Dev2Dev is dead. After acquires of Sun, MySql is dead and NetBeans disabled. Even James Gosling, Father of Java had left Oracle. 

    In short, the war between open source projects and Oracle has started already. As a developer which side you on? What’s the future of Java, Android and other open source projects? It is the very time to give a serious thought about it.


A list of lawsuits about Oracle and using term of 'Java':
    Oracle sues Google over Android and Java
    Oracle sues iteye.com over using term of 'Java'
   Java Creator James Gosling Leaves Oracle
    What happens to MySQL?

评论

24 楼 aninfeel 2011-05-05  

没有收费哪来劳动力，世界上优秀的软件都是收费的，而很多被人们津津乐道的开源软件在同样的商业软件面前，只不过是个测试版而已。

23 楼 tainqing 2011-04-29  

linqs083 写道

oracle是想赚钱，而不是想推广某种技术，所以能赚钱的事都干。他不是sun

ls正解。。。。。。。。。

22 楼 linqs083 2011-04-28  

oracle是想赚钱，而不是想推广某种技术，所以能赚钱的事都干。他不是sun

21 楼 linqs083 2011-04-28  

Oracle is...
unfortun...i am an oracle stuf...

20 楼 zoozooll 2011-04-27  

为什么开源？开源的公司都有另外一个业务是用来赚钱的。不然开源怎么维持下去

19 楼 359904908 2011-04-21  

擦···英文没有学好

18 楼 Checkmate 2011-04-20  

yangguo 写道

Your english is amazing. how to study?

good excellent awesome spectacular extraordinary

17 楼 barrywey 2011-04-20  

Meelor 写道

开源与‘封源’    都也只是一线之间。

     说过，家家都有本 难念的 经 吖。

     再说，这世上，有人自私，就有人不自私！


你说是不！

说的没错，有人自私就有人不自私。但你不能因为自己自私，就要求别人跟你一样自私。不是么！

yangguo 写道

Your english is amazing. how to study?

forget your chinese and try to think in english and say it out,that's all you need to do.

_咖啡杯垫 写道

很少看英文的文章，今天看了，而且仔细的看完了。
自从oracle收购mysql,sun时，有点胆心，从事java的程序员们该何去何从？
如果程序员们离开了open source，那这个行业该如何发展！

我想，程序员应该不会因为Oracle的打压就离开open source。他们或许会选择离开Oracle。君不见，OpenOffice前员工离开Oracle组建了LibreOffice么？

老妖精 写道

也许很快将有新的语言取代j a  v a 了，不知道我打出这4个单词，会不会遭到sue

据说，只有你打出Java的时候才是侵权，java不会侵权。哈哈哈哈啊哈。

16 楼 ppgunjack 2011-04-20  

过多担心，java oracle不会让它没落，但是会让用户掏钱
心思应该放在如何做出赚钱的应用，其次才是节约成本，而且开源！=免费

15 楼 老妖精 2011-04-20  

也许很快将有新的语言取代j a  v a 了，不知道我打出这4个单词，会不会遭到sue

14 楼 _咖啡杯垫 2011-04-19  

很少看英文的文章，今天看了，而且仔细的看完了。
自从oracle收购mysql,sun时，有点胆心，从事java的程序员们该何去何从？
如果程序员们离开了open source，那这个行业该如何发展！

13 楼 yangguo 2011-04-19  

Your english is amazing. how to study?

12 楼 sam.ds.chen 2011-04-19  

文章还凑和，英文不给力

11 楼 lizhuang 2011-04-18  

Orcale现在真的很利害啊。

10 楼 Meelor 2011-04-16  

<div class="quote_title">barrywey 写道</div>
<div class="quote_div">
<p><a href="http://barrywey.blogspot.com/2011/04/oracle-open-source-killer.html" target="_blank"><br></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;">    It’s a public secret that Oracle aims to destroy open source projects. </span></span></p>
</div>
<p>     开源与‘封源’    都也只是一线之间。</p>
<p> </p>
<p>     说过，家家都有本 难念的 经 吖。</p>
<p> </p>
<p>     再说，这世上，有人自私，就有人不自私！</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>你说是不！</p>

9 楼 barrywey 2011-04-16  

can19850 写道

http://www.woir-cn.info/?88795.htm

发个病毒页面干嘛？有什么事情要说？
想不到ItEye的工作人员这会儿都在干嘛呢，这样的帖子也不清理哈了。

8 楼 barrywey 2011-04-16  

guozq518 写道

他当不当杀手关我屁事，我不得照样工作吗

你是得照样工作，如果你毫无预见性的埋头工作，以后或许都不知道是怎么死的，说不定别人把你卖掉了你还帮忙数钱呢！

7 楼 guozq518 2011-04-16  

他当不当杀手关我屁事，我不得照样工作吗

6 楼 hyhai7 2011-04-16  

You！don`t learn Oracle

5 楼 volking 2011-04-16  

如果知道oracle的本质就不会写这篇文章了