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

4 楼 barrywey 2011-04-15  

ppgunjack 写道

老生常谈的话，开源界最重要的几个东西很不幸大都在商用数据库厂商的手里，并且往后会更多
强者恒强，这点上Oracle做的比微软好，即使指责Oracle不道义，无组织的理想主义者永远斗不过有组织的正规武装这是任何时代都注定的，能压倒托拉斯的肯定是另一个托拉斯

我不是无组织的理想主义者。但我显然不期望也不赞同Oracle这样对待开源项目。我更欣赏的Apache那种基金的形式去发展开源项目，不需要过多的与实际利益冲突，至少这样，才能保证开源项目的正常发展。一旦这些东西关联了需要赚钱的商家，那结果可能就是我担心的。

3 楼 barrywey 2011-04-15  

ronatona 写道

high expensive services provided by Oracle is it's shortage, so the well performed open source still has it's growing spaces.
china has widely market that can be competted in future. be patient and confidence with yourself.

what I'm concerned is,such a move by Oracle might cause a fatal outcome. maybe it's NOT what Oracle wants,but after all it happened.

2 楼 ppgunjack 2011-04-14  

老生常谈的话，开源界最重要的几个东西很不幸大都在商用数据库厂商的手里，并且往后会更多
强者恒强，这点上Oracle做的比微软好，即使指责Oracle不道义，无组织的理想主义者永远斗不过有组织的正规武装这是任何时代都注定的，能压倒托拉斯的肯定是另一个托拉斯

1 楼 ronatona 2011-04-13  

high expensive services provided by Oracle is it's shortage, so the well performed open source still has it's growing spaces.
china has widely market that can be competted in future. be patient and confidence with yourself.