Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by CrampusDestrus 1068 days ago
Holy.... that Oracle linux page is so friendly it almost makes me puke. I can't believe anyone would fall for them
2 comments

I'm reminded of Bryan Cantrill's rant about Oracle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=1981s

> "As you know people, as you learn about things, you realize that these generalizations we have are, virtually to a generalization, false. Well, except for this one, as it turns out. What you think of Oracle, is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle. And I gotta say, as someone who has seen that complexity for my entire life, it's very hard to get used to that idea. It's like, 'surely this is more complicated!' but it's like: Wow, this is really simple! This company is very straightforward, in its defense. This company is about one man, his alter-ego, and what he wants to inflict upon humanity -- that's it! ...Ship mediocrity, inflict misery, lie our asses off, screw our customers, and make a whole shitload of money. Yeah... you talk to Oracle, it's like, 'no, we don't fucking make dreams happen -- we make money!' ...You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' -- lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about Oracle."

So, that rant actually predates Oracle v. Google. (For a bit of a history of my LISA talk that you quoted, and then my added color on Oracle v. Google see [0].) Oracle has shown everyone over and over again who they are; it shows how deep the mistrust in Red Hat has become that Oracle seems benign by comparison.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpnncakrelk#t=15m16s

The same company that just two weeks ago was sending out unsolicited emails asking companies about Java licensing - a friendly shakedown for using the official JRE...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36599118

Frankly, I don't get it Oracle. I would say the priorities are backwards - JRE free, Oracle Linux paid would make more objective sense (especially because the JRE used to be free... and there's a lot of free JREs out there.)

Also, don't be stupid enough to download the VirtualBox Extensions package at work; or your work will probably get an email from a licensing agent.

> Also, don't be stupid enough to download the VirtualBox Extensions package at work; or your work will probably get an email from a licensing agent.

Place I used to work blocked the virtualbox home page because exactly this had happened.

It's an huge company with mixed incentives. Not everyone is align whatever their alignment is.
>Yes, we know that this is Oracle, but...

There might be different alignments, but you simply cannot write stuff like this and get away with it if any of your superiors disagree.

That page literally admits Oracle is an asshole company

I don't think there is any cross P&L strategy at play....