On Nov 28, 2010, at 10:51 PM, Ralph Green wrote: > On Sun, 2010-11-28 at 15:35 -0700, Bruce Johnson wrote: >> Open Office merely came along for the ride. Oracle charging for >> the Office ODF decoder may well be reversed in the future...business >> decisions are subject to change, and note this is the only big issue >> that Oracle has changed from Sun, beyond swapping out the logo. >> > Not even close. Oracle removing the Sun board member to the > OpenSolaris foundation and let it die. They drop low cost support > packages for MySQL, which effectively raised prices from $600 to $2000 > per year. And, Oracle reversed their position on licensing for Java, > which forced Apache to leave OpenJDK project. These are the first big > changes that come to mind.
I was referring only to the changes in OO, not the rest of the stuff. And all the rest is kind of what happens when a software and services company buys a hardware company with significant software assets. Oracle makes their money two ways: Support and consulting. Their software is a sizeable income stream, but they'll happily sell you Oracle Financials or Oracle HR (aka PeopleSoft) pretty cheaply. It's the 'modifying it to work with your particular business' that generates the multi-year, multi-fte consultant gigs for the new installation that makes them their money, and the support contracts ensure an annual revenue stream from virtually every customer. Oracle's customer base doesn't really notice the difference between $600 and $2000, also that $2K gets you entree into Oracle's support system, which from personal experience is one of the best in the industry. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
