[platinum1]

You can be authentic and speak your mind without being arrogant, insulting, and condescending.

In terms of tone, I wouldn't hold this up as a good example - it distracts from any legitimate argument the writer may or may not have.

[Udo]

I think a lot of blog posts like these get triggered by some acute event which pushed the writer over the edge, and it's expected this will shine through in the text. The rest is probably due to living in an employer-typical bubble.

If I was an Oracle customer (which I will never, ever be) I would appreciate the honesty. This honesty enables me to make purchase decisions as well, better than megabytes of legalese would have. In this case it's not a really surprising attitude given the company, but I really wish more vendors would be as open about the nature of their intended relationship with their customers.

[maze-le]

> This honesty enables me to make purchase decisions as well.

Fair point. And a hint to everyone still hanging on to oracle Databases.

One of the best lines is this here:

> Q. What does Oracle do if there is an actual security vulnerability?

> (...) if there is an actual security vulnerability, we will fix it.

Sure, the question is 'when', not so much 'if' customers have payed a hell of a lot money to get this straight.

[klean92]

You cannot swear you will never be an Oracle customer. You buy a service from a third party, the company get bought by Oracle, you are a customer now. In many instances in B2B systems, it is a lot more pain to migrate away than sending a check...

[Udo]

Not sure jumping on such a minor point is a productive use of our time, but just for the sake of clarification: sure I can, personally. You have no basis for disputing my intention. I have never in my life made a decision to purchase a service that could only ever be provided by a single company, and with good reason I believe. Over my contracting years, I have also gained enough insight into the dynamics customers have with providers such as Oracle, enough to avoid this kind of lock-in at all costs in my own decisions.

[Agathos]

You can be authentic and speak your mind without being arrogant, insulting, and condescending

If you are by nature arrogant, insulting, and condescending, then no, you can't.

[myhf]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

[yellowapple]

In my honest and not-so-humble opinion, the tendency to attribute arrogance to Oracle is by no means "undue" (which is required for the parent comment to fall victim to FAE).

[yellowapple]

I think it's an accurate representation of her employer, however.

Interesting that all the reasons she cites for why she thinks trying to reverse-engineer Oracle products is a bad idea are the same exact reasons why more and more administrators with any sense in security are switching to open-source software and have been for the last decade or so. Being able to inspect the code yourself (or hire someone to do it for you) is apparently important enough to a sufficiently-large population for Oracle to whine about it.

[gaius]

Tell that to Pottering or de Raadt or Torvalds.