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OldMike

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2009
537
219
Dallas, TX
I think I prefer an Oracle acquisition of Sun as opposed to an IBM acquisition. IMO, Sun's technology has a greater chance of surviving with Oracle. Solaris has always been the premier platform for Oracle. I can't see Oracle killing off Solaris, since it is far superior to Linux. I think we will see Oracle backing off of Linux a bit and concentrating once again on Solaris now that they actually own it.

I'm not sure what they will do with the SPARC and x86 hardware platforms. It would be a huge move for Oracle to get into the hardware business, and it will be interesting to see what they do in light of today's economic conditions. I'm impressed with Sun's hardware offerings, both their SPARC servers and x86 Servers. Prices are not bad and their LOM and Remote management is excellent and built in, as opposed to being an add on like the rest of the server vendors. I would really hate to see Oracle kill off Sun's hardware, and I don't think it will happen. It seems that Oracle wants to offer a complete solution and now they have all of the pieces.

As for MySQL, I'm also optimistic about its future in the hands of Oracle. I don't think it is going to go away, but I would guess that future development will begin to stray away from features that would seem to be too competitive with Oracle. MySQL has such a large user base, that there is no way Oracle is going to turn its back on future potential Oracle customers. I think they will position MySQL as the entry level database server for non-critical data, and push Oracle as the enterprise data solution. It will be interesting to see how much (if any) work goes into MySQL in the future in regards to scalability and high availability....

I think it was a smart move on Oracle's part for acquiring MySQL. I really believe that Open Source databases like MySQL and Postgres were going to give Oracle and SQL Server a real run for their money in the near future. The open source databases are continually adding enterprise level features and I think Oracle was going to start having a real tough time convincing people that there was any extra value in spending the huge sums of money on an Oracle database.

For me, I think that the biggest loss that may come of this may be the end of the NetBeans IDE. I prefer it greatly over Eclipse, but I remember a few years ago Sun and Oracle were having a little dispute over NetBeans/Eclipse and I just don't think its going to get any support from Oracle. I at least hope they can cannibalize the best features and hopefully use it to make improvements to Eclipse.

This acquisition makes sense, but was a surprise to me. I was expecting Cisco to try to swoop in and make a grab.

As far as Apple is concerned, I'm hoping morale may be low at Sun right now, and hopefully Apple can cherry pick some their best and brightest :D
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,152
9
Tampere, Finland
Excellent news. MySQL has been suffering under Sun but now it is possible that Oracle actually makes it a good product (eventually). Someone already mentioned backups, and that's what Oracle knows the best; hopefully they implement a decent tool for the open source community as well.

Oh, well... You can always hope.
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,152
9
Tampere, Finland
I think I prefer an Oracle acquisition of Sun as opposed to an IBM acquisition.

Me too

Solaris has always been the premier platform for Oracle. I can't see Oracle killing off Solaris, since it is far superior to Linux. I think we will see Oracle backing off of Linux a bit and concentrating once again on Solaris now that they actually own it.

Premier platform means premier price as well. It will continue to be so, which means Oracle can only sell that platform so much. Linux will still be the key r&d platform for Oracle, and THE platform most customers will choose, due to price.

Since 10g and "grid computing" it has been the Oracle way to move from large singular servers to multiple small servers/desktops and I don't see that changing now. Solaris will only be a nice addition to the product line and as they tout being able to offer "total" systems. Perhaps they're going to lower price as well? We'll see.

I would really hate to see Oracle kill off Sun's hardware, and I don't think it will happen. It seems that Oracle wants to offer a complete solution and now they have all of the pieces.

Don't worry, it's not going to happen. But don't expect more choices :)

As for MySQL, I'm also optimistic about its future in the hands of Oracle. (...) I think they will position MySQL as the entry level database server for non-critical data, and push Oracle as the enterprise data solution.

Yes, perhaps. They already have the free XE that has been crippled from the same code base as their flagship, but the big question is do they want to be giving it away? MySQL would fit perfectly for the free product in the palette; it's just that they should integrate APEX to the MySQL if they ditch XE...
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,152
9
Tampere, Finland
I am so worried about apple.... :(:eek:
Soon the world will be owned by o®icle!!!! :eek::eek:

This does not affect Apple in any way. It is only bad for IBM as they also were trying to buy Sun recently. And it would probably be bad for HP as well, because now it is likely Sun hardware will get more sales, compared to HP storage solutions that Oracle has been using lately.
 

Shookster

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2009
115
108
The move will put an end to long-running rumors and speculation that Sun may acquire Apple or vice-versa.

Cue the speculation that Oracle will buy Apple or vice-versa :rolleyes:
 

BrokenChairs

macrumors member
Apr 13, 2007
68
0
Australia
Goodbye Solaris, SPARC, VirtualBox and Java. Now all Oracle needs to do is buy RedHat(JBoss). Could kill both at the same time.

Yeah, now that I've started experimenting with VirtualBox, I wonder how long before things change. I don't know anything about Oracle, but by the replies, it's not good.
 

addicted44

macrumors 6502a
Jun 6, 2005
533
168
I don't understand why people feel that Oracle spent 7B! :eek: to simply kill off all of Sun's products.

This is a great acquisition for Oracle, and it can do a lot more with the products Sun had lying around than Sun was. The couple of products that might get nixed (probably passed onto someone else to develop) are low priority items like Virtualbox.

I expect Oracle to continue supporting all the major products, including MySQL.
 

squeak

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2002
4
0
Tech Biz

Oracle + Sun as an integrated solution seems like a more logical move than
IBM + Sun. Cisco is going in the integrated direction as well and as companies
compete we'll probably see more of this type of initiative to provide all-in-one solutions. Sun has been laying off people quarter by quarter for a long time, and it's probably better than a trickle down to nothing like SGI.

Apple + Sun would have been encouraging -perhaps- 10 years ago and we'd probably be living in bizarro world now if that had happened.

It will be interesting to see if the hardware unit of Sun will be spun out as something new or parted out to some other entity. Oracle isn't as vicious as
some other overarching software companies - however innovation suffers when there are less and less competing forces.
Alas, years ago, I had a small Spark on my desk and a huge screen- an amazingly powerful workstation for its time.
 

Popeye206

macrumors 68040
Sep 6, 2007
3,148
836
NE PA USA
Personally... I don't think it's the end of the world. Sun has been slipping for years and needs someone like Oracle to revive what it can from the product line.

Thank god Apple and Sun never merged! That would have been the end of Apple! All Apple needed was some direction and focus... they got that from Mr. Jobs... they would have gotten buried in Sun.
 

johnnj

macrumors 6502a
Dec 11, 2008
598
0
Not here
I agree with those who said this makes more sense than the IBM deal.

My living is made managing an Oracle Financials environment which runs on top of Solaris/SPARC hardware.

This being the case, what I care about is:

1. Support for my enviroment will continue unchanged
2. There will be a hardware upgrade path which doesn't require platform change or major reworking of our customizations.

Although Oracle has been pushing their linux products (and have an "indestructable" linux or whatever they call it), it's my understanding that Solaris is still their bread and butter platform. Solaris on the SPARC platform. While x86 lingers on I don't think it's really gained much traction in this space. Perhaps that will change.

This being the case, if this deal goes through and structures the integration in such a way so that it will benefit its own products and customers, then my concerns will be alleviated.

I don't see how this affects Apple in the least. I would have never considered Xserve to be remotely in the same class as even the crappiest contemporary SPARC server and the last time I used a Sun workstation as a regular desktop was almost 10 years ago. Maybe in the science market where SPARC desktops running custom unix code there might be some Apple-Sun competition, but I'd see this new situation as favorable to Apple, since I wouldn't think that Oracle would even want to get into the dirty business of competing on the desktop level.

What it comes down to is this: overpriced software+overpriced hardware=perfect together

John
 

freddiecable

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2003
656
196
Sweden
my thought too - why would apple want to buy Sun? or reversed?

It never really made sense for Apple to buy Sun. Most of their products (things like Java and Solaris) would have simply been scrapped because Apple didn't need them.

Apple does need to bring in server expertise, and on that front Sun would be ideal. Unfortunately it wouldn't justify the $7Bn price tag. Maybe Apple will be able to hire people leaving Sun due to the acquisition, or maybe they're just not going to concentrate on the corporate and server markets.
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,152
9
Tampere, Finland
Solaris on the SPARC platform. While x86 lingers on I don't think it's really gained much traction in this space. Perhaps that will change.

I think not. SPARC is great and they have invested lots to Linux (on x86) so perhaps they in fact are trying to "kill" the Solaris/x86 as paid platform and leave it to open community instead.
 

Evangelion

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,376
184
I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Oracle sold Sun's SPARC-business to Fujitsu. I really don't see Oracle becoming a hardware-vendor.
 

illitrate23

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2004
682
271
uk
Jobs showed that locking the software to the hardware and focusing relentlessly on building a perfectly integrated system aimed at the customer, was the superior approach
he showed you that 20 years ago!! what, have you only just noticed???
 

kastenbrust

macrumors 68030
Dec 26, 2008
2,890
0
North Korea
This is good news, especially for Apple, now lets hope Sun's server dominance completely collapses and allows Apple to get in their with their updated ZFS capable Servers with Microsoft Exchange support.

It makes sense for Oracle because they need Suns server and customer base however since Oracle dont really know anything about this sector i dont think they're going to go very far with this deal.
Those people who are saying its bad for antitrust should look at this as the only hope of knocking away Microsofts server dominance.
 

scottishwildcat

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2007
294
365
Bad news for everybody.

Oracle has a nasty habit of picking the pieces of a company apart and then selling off the worthless carcass that remains.

Wow... The antitrust commission should just shoot this one down...
On what grounds? There's not much overlap between Oracle and Sun. Even MySQL has a mostly-different target audience from Oracle's DB.

I'm a Sun employee, and IMHO this probably means a better future for Sun's technologies than an IBM acquisition would have done. (Or, for that matter, no acquisition at all, once it became apparent that we were courting possible buyers). But it certainly remains to be seen how many of those technologies Oracle actually want to develop, and how many will be tossed over the wall to have open source communities decide their fate.
 

Evangelion

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,376
184
This is good news, especially for Apple, now lets hope Sun's server dominance completely collapses and allows Apple to get in their with their updated ZFS capable Servers with Microsoft Exchange support.

What "server-dominance"? Sun does not dominate the server-business. They are pretty big in hi-end servers, but Apple and Xserve does not compete there in any shape or form. It's just totally different market from what Apple competes in. and no, bolting ZFS on the Xserver is not enough to make them competitors to Sun-hardware.

Those people who are saying its bad for antitrust should look at this as the only hope of knocking away Microsofts server dominance.

Microsoft doesn't really dominate the server-market. Linux is pretty big there, and the big-iron UNIX (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX etc.) still dominate the hi-end market, with Linux having a bigger and bigger role there as well. Supercomputers are totally dominated by Linux. MS is the biggest singular player in server-OS'es, but they do not dominate the market.
 
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