The Oracle Corporation, a software technology leader, is a legitimate open source power company since acquiring Sun Microsystems. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, makes a lot of money and many people think it is excessive in relation to what other CEO’s are earning. This view contributed to the outrage experienced when Oracle acquired Sun Micro and the media started picking apart nearly all elements of the Sun Micro open source catalog. There was actually an element of fear being perpetuated when it was believed that Oracle acquired Sun Micro simply to kill it off and eliminate the competition. Here are some reasons that the marriage between the two companies actually works.
1.) Oracle is better positioned to go after the industry leader Microsoft. They have continued to grow their investment in the Open Source My SQL database, which allows them to compete with the industry giant.
2.) Oracle has a slate on important upcoming releases that will have the market buzzing. Among them are:
* They plan to release JavaFX 2.0 components that will serve as open source by the time the 2.0 version has been completed.
* Oracle is continuing its product development, recently releasing version 4.0 of Virtualbox.
* Oracle has also planned work on Java versions 7 and 8, which will also be available as open source.
3.) To Oracle, it’s simply everyone against Microsoft. Oracle has a clear interest in mounting all troops to take on the industry leader with a belief that they are just as capable of setting industry standards for others to follow.
Oracle still has a little way to go before they can catch Steve Jobs and Microsoft. After all, Microsoft is able to sell companies the whole package of software. Microsoft is still the leader in optimal SQL Server accessing of data, and Oracle will need more acquisitions than Sun Micro in order to take a legitimate run at the industry leader.