Oracle: We Do Open Source Just Like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft… Mostly

May 27, 2020

Silicon Angle published the PR-ish “Oracle’s Open Source Alter Ego Behind Some of Its Most Popular Products.” Oracle is creeping up to the half century mark. In Internet years or dog years, Oracle has been around so long that it is like comfortable shoes. The shine may be gone, but, by golly, those slippers work well indoors.

Oracle has its fans, and it has some detractors. Among its fans are the procurement officials in the US government who keep on renewing those contracts for the company’s flagship database. Among its detractors are some Googlers, licensees who struggle with integrating some of the company’s products into zippy new environments like NoSQL, and firms offering unauthorized Oracle training.

None of these considerations sully the Oracle open source article. We learn:

Oracle’s paid products and services are actually loaded with ingredients from open-source communities, including Linux, to which it is also a contributor. This circular ecosystem of contributing and borrowing back enables some of the versatility and cross-environment compatibility in the company’s latest database and hybrid-cloud offerings.

Why is Oracle into open source? Why are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and other commercial proprietary software vendors embracing open source? DarkCyber finds this statement in the article interesting:

The use of Linux across Oracle’s portfolio, and as the underlying OS for its products and services, enhances end users’ experience.

The article includes a testimonial from the Oracle wizard of open source, who says:

When its contributions improve both the larger Linux community and its own products, a circular flow of innovation develops that helps everyone that uses Linux, according to Coekaerts. “It’s not so much about making my own world better and having Linux be better and Ksplice and so forth, which is important, but that becoming part of the bigger picture — that’s the exciting part.” — Wim Coekaerts, senior vice president of software development at Oracle Corp.

DarkCyber was under the obviously false impression that proprietary software vendors were embracing open source for these reasons:

Shift some development costs to the community
Link proprietary systems and methods to open source to provide a runway to commercial licenses
Prevent other companies from capturing open source technologies and preventing others from using those technologies
Respond to enterprise customers who view open source as a way to avoid the handcuffs of proprietary software by implementing a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” strategy
Gain insight into individuals who might be good hires.

Obviously DarkCyber was incorrect. We acknowledge our error.

Stephen E Arnold, May 27, 2020

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Open source

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.