Thread

1. giancarlostoro · 1790262685 · focus · HN ↗

   I really don't get who keeps using Oracle outside of Java, and how they make their money, must be some legacy contracts or something, but Oracle has always been customer hostile, from all the things I've heard, they sound like a ransomware company (idk if they still do it, but they'd sell you the database, then "audit you" and if you used anything that wasn't in compliance, fine you, until you converted that to Oracle DB too or whatever wild stuff). I just don't get it. I get even less how its execs are okay running what could be a much more successful company so poorly. You can change Oracle for the better and become even more profitable if you change how you do business.

   Take Java as a solid example, they removed JavaFX from the core of Java, which made everyone think JavaFX was dead, recently they started providing enterprise support for JavaFX, which signals its production ready, but, who wants to trust Oracle? I sure don't. I can use C# for free without any of that baggage, and if I get all sorts of stable options for a GUI, and with Avalonia (and Uno?) I can run my GUI on any OS.

   1. kakacik · 1790264339 · focus · HN ↗

      You don't have experience from corporate environment. Oracle is very much present, alive and kicking there, in 1000 and 1 little or big applications, sometimes even out of convenience and cost (is you have just 1 DBA team supporting oracle, adding even 1 postgres to production system could be a cost nightmare to support and manage.

      And SQL DBs are not going anywhere in next few decades.

      1. ebiester · 1790265875 · focus · HN ↗

         Zipcar started in 2000/2001 on Oracle and relied heavily on stored procedures, particularly in billing (as SaaS didn't exist back when it started and was a bad fit for a long time). It took an entire rewrite of the system to get off of Oracle.

         1. kjs3 · 1790272804 · focus · HN ↗

            I've heard the exact same thing about DB2, Sybase and Terradata over the years. It's not some uniquely Oracle issue.
      2. giancarlostoro · 1790284633 · focus · HN ↗

         > You don't have experience from corporate environment.

         Thank you for redefining my entire career, in fact, everywhere I've worked at as a developer, if they ever used Oracle either migrated completely away from it or are in / were in the process of migrating from it, including Fortune 500 companies. Which is why I asked what I asked. I'm genuinely curious.

         1. flippingheck · 1790314328 · focus · HN ↗

            Could it be selection bias?

            Perhaps you and employers that happen to stick with Oracle aren't looking for the same thing?

            1. giancarlostoro · 1790344968 · focus · HN ↗

               Possible, but I guess my view comes from: Usually startups don't line up for Oracle as far as I can tell, and new companies don't line up for Oracle (I'm separating this from startups because you can have a brick and mortar that's modernizing and bringing tech in-house), so if their customer base keeps leaving and they are only retaining some of their customers... It's not really looking good from where I'm standing. To be extremely fair, I think Oracle has drastically more potential than what they do today, and could even become extremely dominant, but they're not playing those cards at all, and its kind of a shame. They've got plenty of funds to make the JDK and programming in general more interesting, and they would stand to profit from it since who wouldnt want to hire Oracle consultants on their tech if they need key consultants? I know people pay top dollar for Microsoft consultants to get their startups going.

               1. flippingheck · 1790749127 · focus · HN ↗

                  Yeah, I'd guess Oracle DB isn't attractive to startups, and that's probably a long term risk for them.

                  There is plenty of $$$ at the top, at the moment.

                  Oracle Cloud offers them some long term strategy.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.