Oracle and Open Source Agitation

December 9, 2010

At a conference in London on December 3, 2010, I posed a question to a panel of content processing CEOs. I asked, “Isn’t open source going to put more pressure on firms with proprietary software and systems.” The answers were cautiously phrased. The advantage of open source is that it appears to be “free”. But proprietary software comes with the backing of a big company, not a rag tag crowd of volunteer developers.

I was a well behaved moderator, and I did not fire back with the advantages of open source software, nor did I take issue with the measured comments of the panelists. I had read “Oracle’s Open Source Missteps Continue with Hudson Project”. I knew that Oracle was wheeling more armored vehicles into its battle with open source software. If my panelists were not worried, those folks did not see the world exactly as Larry Ellison and his senior executives perceive it. Like I said, I was a good, chubby moderator. However, I will be one Estonian kroner that Mark Hurd gets with the Oracle open source program.

What’s the latest weaponry look like? Here’s the write up’s take”:

…an Oracle email notifying Hudson users and developers of this migration was not received as the sender was not subscribed to the mailing lists in question. As a result, Hudson developers have been locked out of the mailing lists and unable to access or update the source code for more than a week.

Is this shaped information? Is this an attempt to wrest control of the Hudson Project from the open source community?

I don’t know, but if open source is no big deal as the content processing execs told me, does Oracle know something other software company presidents don’t know?

Oracle seems to be taking increasingly contentious positions with regard to open source. My money is on Oracle’s perception of open source. After all if MySQL, Java, and the Hudson Project were irrelevant, why waste the time and PR brownie points?

This open source software warrants continued observation. Perhaps the folks reassuring me were putting on their game faces, keeping the inner concerns under wraps?

Stephen E Arnold, December 9, 2010

Freebie

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Database, News, Open source, Technology, Text processing

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.