Posted on 04/16/2006 9:08:10 PM PDT by N3WBI3
LOL! IBM stabbed their Unix on Intel partner SCO in the back if not stole their IP. Now they're paying for it. They'll probably now try to buy Red Hat then all the employees quit and make free copies LOL. At least Ellison is smart enough not to try that, from what we're hearing.
Worth the gamble, I suppose, since Ellison could buy Novell with the spare change in his other pants. ;)
IBM Per the contract the were in pulled out of Monteray. This was not stabbing SCO in the back as any work done up to that point was still available for SCO.
if not stole their IP.
Please... SCO has had demonstrated violations of copyright after this circus started where as they have still not shown any code in Linux that can be attributed to the IP which now they might not even own (we will have to wait and see how their suit against Novell turns out).
At least Ellison is smart enough not to try that, from what we're hearing.
If you read the article before you trolled the article you would have seen this " As part of a recent study of the open source software market, Mr Ellison said that Oracle had considered buying Novell, which after Red Hat is the biggest distributor of Linux." They are looking at buying Novell (Suse)...
Ellison mentioned possibly buying Novell, which would mean purchasing the SuSE linux distribution.
Yep, IBM pulled out of their agreement with SCO, so your contention they had no other method to counter M$ on Intel except with linux was typical BS.
Oracle isn't buying Novell, obviously either. Ellison said he thought about it, but as he said billion dollar investments in open source are lunacy.
"Oracle Mulled, Rejected Novell Purchase"
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060417/1274050.html?.v=1
Here's some of his exact quotes why open source is a poor investment:
http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9680596
"I've had this discussion with the CEOs of open source companies. We've looked at buying some, some with very high price tags -- but since we already have access to all the intellectual property, why wouldn't we just embed this technology in our technology and provide support."
According to the Oracle boss, Novell had been temporarily in Oracle's crosshairs but bids were binned due to potential risk. A Red Hat buy was also rejected by Ellison.
He said: "I don't see how we could possibly buy Red Hat. We see in China and India, all that stuff is freely available and Red Hat is just cut completely out of the market. I'm not gong to spend USD5 billion, or USD6 billion, for something that can just be so completely wiped off the map."
Monterey was years away from producing a usable system, asking IBM to not have an x86 alternative that long was a problem.
All of this, of course, has little if anything to do with the fact that Oracle itself can add the OS to its stack and is aimed only at pulling yet another thread into a flame war and at this point its pretty transparent thats what you do pretty much all the time.
Perhaps--Perhaps not:
Ellison said that adding major Linux distribution, such as Novell's SUSE version, was important to fleshing out his $11.8 billion company's current software "stack," or inventory. The goal would be to offer both an operating system and associated programs that would better compete with longtime market dominator Microsoft Windows.
"We're missing an operating system. You could argue that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at distributing and supporting Linux," Ellison said, adding that Oracle had recently considered buying the $1.2 billion Novell to quickly fill its product line gap.
FYI "had" and "considered" are past tense. They may now release their own version, probably based on a free copy of RH or SUSE, or sell support like Microsoft is now doing. But investing any significant money to buy the "rights" is foolish, as Ellison pointed out since everyone is just making free copies of it anyway.
We live in interesting times.
Yep, it's all about the stack.
I understand that. I was merely pointing out that there are conflicting articles on this topic. I haven't formed an opinion one way or the other, nor do I particularly care. I don't use Oracle, SuSE, or Novell.
They very well may produce their own version. They may buy a version. They may even just take a free version and modify it to suit their own needs. I don't know.
You're the only one confused, at least between us two. Read Ellison's words for yourself, I already posted and linked them. He isn't going to spend any significant monies for open source software, as it allows your competitors to make thier own free knockoffs of your product.
He'll probably just start making his own free copies, and selling support, without really having to dirty his hands with the OSS developers. Probably the only reason he's not already ripping the free copies is the legal liability of Linux, one open source group already admitted some 283 patents are probably being violated, so that's a major headache he'd like to avoid. Same for IBM, already in court over Linux themselves.
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