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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1570
Ellison Adds Fuel to Mac v. Linux Desktop Fire
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
January 22nd 2003
Oracle CEO offers some insights into the future of Oracle on Mac, Linux.
Oracle CEO and ex-Apple board member Larry Ellison has hinted that Linux may be the
future of desktop computing - not the Mac.
In an interview with eWeek, Ellison is quoted as saying, "The Macintosh is very
important to the Macintosh community," [While he said that Oracle will support the
Macintosh as long as Apple Computer Inc. supports Java, he hinted that Linux desktops
running Oracle applications are in the cards.] "There will be support on Linux. More
and more people will use that. We intend to give you choices."
Ellison was more forthcoming about the potential of Linux and Intel, stating they were
cheaper and faster, singling out Linux for particular praise for its speed.
In 1996-97, Ellison was strongly in favor of the Mac as a an 'NC' - Network Computer.
This was meant to be some kind of 'dumb terminal' through which users interacted with
real computers - file servers and internet servers, for instance. Indeed, for the
first five seconds, pundits looking at his friend Jobs' unveiling of the iMac in 1998
thought that Bondi Blue was the NC.
Ellison left the Apple board last year, citing the increasing demands of his position
at Oracle. At the time of his departure, Jobs praised his friend, stating he would
consult him often.
Analysis: Cheaper and faster than what? Windows? Mac? AMD? Probably true in all cases.
But Apple has moved adroitly to entice and embrace the Unix community and sidestep
Linux with its X11 strategy. There have been more than 100,000 downloads of Apple's
X11 beta since Jobs' January 7 keynote, and Apple is deploying X11 to coax more
developers to move Unix apps to OS X. Getting Unix users on expensive Sun machines to
switch to Mac - where they can use Office, as well as their Unix apps - is also one of
Apple's marketing aims, argues a ZDNet article.
As (briefly) the world's richest man and the builder of a the world's biggest database
company, Larry Ellison isn't short on insights into - and leadership of - the
industry. But we still don't buy the 'Linux as # 2 desktop platform' paradigm for a
wide variety of reasons. Cheap isn't the only reason people buy PCs; otherwise,
Walmart would be sold out of those $200 Linux boxes.
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