Sun makes (made) awesome technology. They built things no one else could build. They also built things no one wanted. In fact, they had a really hard time figuring out what people wanted, this was their weakness.
Oracle, on the other hand, is extremely good and marketing. They are especially good at marketing to business. They are also good at knowing what businesses want (or alternately, making business people want what they have). I don't like Oracle, but I have to say this may be the best thing that's happened for Sparc in a long time.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Thursday May 07, 2009 @11:00PM (#27872187)
WOw, I didnt know oracle was buying Sun.
I wonder will this increase oracles usage on Solaris
I'm going to bookmark this thread and reference whenever someone says "there's no such thing as a stupid question."
1. If you scrolled down this far, you would have seen the link to the story about Oracle buying Sun titled "Oracle buys Sun" or any of the dozen related stories on slashdot or other sites including mainstream news.
2. Solaris on SPARC is already the largest base for deployment of Oracle.
I kindly request you change your handle from t3chn0n3rd to something that doesn't imply a familiarity with the technology world.
If you have recently been in a coma I apologize for being so blunt.
They are especially good at marketing to business. They are also good at knowing what businesses want
This is just a minor nitpick, but knowing what your customers want is part of the marketing. Marketing is not just advertising, though many seem to forget that.
Don't ask me, ask Oracle. They're the ones who blogged this anecdote. But I suspect it's entirely possible for Oracle to survive on past successes for quite a while.
I guess I mis-stated my question. What I was wondering is why do you think people are moving away from Oracle en mass to mysql? Because that's the first I've heard of it. I'm wondering if you have information I am unaware of.
Not sure. Probably just because MySQL is "good enough" (albeit, far from perfect, and I personally prefer PostgreSQL regardless), and perhaps just because it's free, or because the nature of database-backed applications is gradually changing from a huge, complex, expensive setup on reliable hardware to a redundant, flexible, simple, cheap setup on commodity hardware.
I think Oracle themselves will probably provide more insight into the issue, when we see what way they proceed with MySQL and Oracle RDBMS.
Stop being a lazy prick and go read their blog if you're so damn interested. I'm not doing to hold your hand like you're a two year-old when it was only posted recently. And watch the attitude.
It may be true, personally I prefer postgres as well. Oracle has a lot of other products other than a database, I don't completely understand them all because I am not the target market, but they are obviously doing very well. They seem to know what they are doing, so while I don't like them as a company at all, I would not bet against them making a profit in some way.
They also built things no one wanted. In fact, they had a really hard time figuring out what people wanted, this was their weakness.
That was supposed to be the job of their ambassadors and maybe the sales/marketing people - to get feedback from potential customers as to what they wanted to see in future products. Problem is, they mostly wanted a solid reliable OS that that they wouldn't have to wait for the first service pack before upgrading an entire department as well as having a competitive price/perfor
What might be nice is something like the Cell approach, so that different cores provide better support for different things. A bunch of crypto cores, a nice farm of FPUs, etc.
All great discoveries are made by mistake.
-- Young
Are You Really Prepared for the Hardware Market? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Are You Really Prepared for the Hardware Market (Score:5, Interesting)
Oracle, on the other hand, is extremely good and marketing. They are especially good at marketing to business. They are also good at knowing what businesses want (or alternately, making business people want what they have). I don't like Oracle, but I have to say this may be the best thing that's happened for Sparc in a long time.
Re:Are You Really Prepared for the Hardware Market (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Are You Really Prepared for the Hardware Market (Score:5, Funny)
WOw, I didnt know oracle was buying Sun.
I wonder will this increase oracles usage on Solaris
I'm going to bookmark this thread and reference whenever someone says "there's no such thing as a stupid question."
1. If you scrolled down this far, you would have seen the link to the story about Oracle buying Sun titled "Oracle buys Sun" or any of the dozen related stories on slashdot or other sites including mainstream news.
2. Solaris on SPARC is already the largest base for deployment of Oracle.
I kindly request you change your handle from t3chn0n3rd to something that doesn't imply a familiarity with the technology world.
If you have recently been in a coma I apologize for being so blunt.
There are no stupid questions... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I disagree. "How come Kirk ate the hippopotamus?" is clearly a stupid question.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is just a minor nitpick, but knowing what your customers want is part of the marketing. Marketing is not just advertising, though many seem to forget that.
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This is just a minor nitpick, but knowing what your customers want is part of the marketing.
Good marketing includes hookers and blow.
Give 'em that and then your customers will buy whatever you are selling.
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Yep.
It's only really a problem when you are trying to sell hookers and blow.
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Yes, much like people buy hotdogs from the guy with the wiener cart, except when he is giving them away.
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"Yes, much like people buy hotdogs from the guy with the wiener cart, except when he is giving them away."
First dose for free, man, but only first dose.
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That must be why they kept going into companies to sell Oracle RDBMS, only to find the companies preferred MySQL.
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I very much doubt that any shop that chose MySQL over Oracle did so for any reason but price.
In other words, such a shop was never really a potential customer.
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Don't ask me, ask Oracle. They're the ones who blogged this anecdote. But I suspect it's entirely possible for Oracle to survive on past successes for quite a while.
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Not sure. Probably just because MySQL is "good enough" (albeit, far from perfect, and I personally prefer PostgreSQL regardless), and perhaps just because it's free, or because the nature of database-backed applications is gradually changing from a huge, complex, expensive setup on reliable hardware to a redundant, flexible, simple, cheap setup on commodity hardware.
I think Oracle themselves will probably provide more insight into the issue, when we see what way they proceed with MySQL and Oracle RDBMS.
Re: (Score:2)
Stop being a lazy prick and go read their blog if you're so damn interested. I'm not doing to hold your hand like you're a two year-old when it was only posted recently. And watch the attitude.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They also built things no one wanted. In fact, they had a really hard time figuring out what people wanted, this was their weakness.
That was supposed to be the job of their ambassadors and maybe the sales/marketing people - to get feedback from potential customers as to what they wanted to see in future products. Problem is, they mostly wanted a solid reliable OS that that they wouldn't have to wait for the first service pack before upgrading an entire department as well as having a competitive price/perfor
Re: (Score:2)
What might be nice is something like the Cell approach, so that different cores provide better support for different things. A bunch of crypto cores, a nice farm of FPUs, etc.