Oracle intersted in buying Ubunutu

[Anders Karlsson]

On Thu, 2006-04-20 at 00:03 +1000, Alexander Jacob Tsykin wrote:
> On Wednesday 19 April 2006 19:38, Chanchao wrote:
> > I'm not sure that 'beating Microsoft' should be a goal in itself.  And
> > Canonical *IS* a commercial backer.
> >
> but should not be the only one. I was talking here about Linux generally, not 
> just Ubuntu

Right, so RedHat, Novell and the other for-profit Linux Distribution
vendors don't count then? And considering that voluntary best-effort
distributions like Slackware, Gentoo and Debian are still alive and
kicking, it would appear that the Linux distribution space is not
exactly rolling over playing dead when faced with the might of
corporations.

Also, it'd be helpful if you stopped moving the goalposts all the time,
just a posting or two ago, you were adamant that Ubuntu required more
financial backers. Now it is Linux in general. Would that be the kernel,
distributions or both?

> > I dislike Oracle almost as much as Microsoft.. perhaps more so. Their
> > software quality and support quality is atrocious.  That currently
> > Microsoft is on top doesn't mean that Oracle can't be just as evil.
> >
> Microsoft is not evil in my opinion. They make good and easy-to-use software. 
> There are plenty of circumstances I could not recommend the use of Linux for, 
> because it is simply not ready. And when criticising the quality of Oracle's 
> software, consider that they essentially own the database market, so they 
> must be doing something right.

No, Microsoft is not evil, I agree with you on that. What they are is a
greedy, backstabbing, excellent at marketing, poor at quality and
delivery corporation. They are convicted monopolists in the USA, under
intense scrutiny in the EU and closely monitored elsewhere in the world
due to their business practises.

What they have got right, is a reasonable consistency of the user
interface, but security was an ill-fitting afterthought of a bolt-on.
Their arrogance is astonishing in itself, but they have to be admired
for becoming the biggest OS vendor out there with one of the worst
products to ever have hit the market.

Also, Oracle *want* you to believe that they 'own' the database market.
They are big, but they hardly own the market. In many ways, DB2 is a
superior product and is well liked and used by financial institutions.

As always, use the *best* tool for the job, rather than shape the job
around the tool.

-- 
Anders Karlsson <trudheim at gmail.com>
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