If Oracle Bought Every Open Source Company 237
An anonymous reader points out Glyn Moody's thought experiment: what if Oracle bought up the entire open source ecosystem? Who would win, who would lose? And how might an open ecosystem grow in the wake of such an event? "Recently, there was an interesting rumour circulating that Oracle had a war chest of some $70 billion, and was going on an acquisition spree. Despite the huge figure, it had a certain plausibility, because Oracle is a highly successful company with deep pockets and an aggressive management. The rumour was soon denied, but suppose Oracle decided to spend, if not $70 billion, say $10 billion in an efficient way: how might it do that? One rather dramatic use of that money would be to buy up the leading open source companies — all of them."
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:3, Funny)
We'll start the bidding at -$5.00
(Yes, you pay us to take you over)
What If . . . (Score:5, Funny)
What if squirrels had wings and shot cruise missiles out of their tail? That's about as grounded in reality as Oracle buying up everything.
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:5, Funny)
We'll start the bidding at -$5.00
(Yes, you pay us to take you over)
I bid -$10.00.
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:4, Funny)
So now we're in a price-is-right bidding war, trying to find the largest sum that Gordonjcp can afford to pay to have his company taken over, without going over (after all, if he can't pay up, it'd really be wrong of him not to reject your bid). -$50,000.00!
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:5, Funny)
I bid negative infinity squared!
Wait... erm... nevermind.
'Acquire' free software? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What If . . . (Score:1, Funny)
What if squirrels had wings and shot cruise missiles out of their tail?
I'm intrigued by your ideas, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter...
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:1, Funny)
You want cubed - that will retain the sign.
Re:Hi. I'm an open-source developer. (Score:1, Funny)
You're not fooling anyone. You can be replaced by about 10 MS Word templates.
You sound like a worse salesperson than him (Score:1, Funny)
there's a reason oracle bought mysql; it's the superior product bar none. And it takes high paying DBA jobs away from oracle admins.
Re:What If . . . (Score:3, Funny)
"Again?! That trick nevers works."