"Oracle has pulled the rug out from under Intel's Itanium processor by yanking support of its database, middleware, and application software on future Poulson and Kittson Itaniums. It looks as though Larry Ellison wants to take on IBM in microprocessors for data center systems, man to man, head to head. 'I remember when we first bought Sun, a lot of people said we were going to get out of the hardware business," Oracle's co-founder and CEO said opening up his keynote at the OpenWorld customer and partner and conference on Sunday night, when he also announced the new Exalytics in-memory BI appliance. 'I guess we didn't get that memo,' Ellison quipped, pointing out that Apple is doing a 'pretty good job' designing its own hardware and software and making it work well with its own services. And that Oracle is not only committed to making its server, storage, and networking business work, but having taken Sun's hardware as a means of getting its hands on Solaris and Java, Oracle is actually enthusiastic about creating its own stack."
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Member since:2006-03-02
That assumes that Oracle doesn't find some "clever" way of making it hard or impossible for IBM to port their stuff to Sparc. Like Microsoft has done, where they make use of private APIs to give their own apps an advantage. Maybe in the current technical and legal environment, it would be impossible for Oracle to really lock out IBM, but I guarantee that they're thinking about it, and I can also guarantee that IBM is going to be at the bottom of the list of companies to receive technical support when they run into a problem.
Sun was always a challenge when it came to getting technical support, if you were an ISV and ran into some kind of problem. On the other hand, working with Solaris was wonderful compared to HPUX, Tru64, and AIX. Doing apps was posix, but writing kernel drivers was a nightmare for everything but Linux and Solaris. Hell, even Windows wasn't that bad to write drivers for.
So the instant IBM runs into some kind of problem they can't solve, they'll save time and gray hairs by not bothering to contact Oracle and just poking through OpenSolaris source code. Mind you, I'm not sure if it'll be much better for anyone else. Windows is okay to target, because that's all Microsoft does, and Linux is good because you can get the source code. But for these other hardware vendors, their OS is just a vehicle for selling hardware, so their OS tends to take a back seat to everything else, especially when it comes to support for developers. Oracle wants to sell databases. Their internal developers will get fantastic support (relatively speaking), but that's about it.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
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"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?
Member since:
2006-01-04
... IBM starts offering their database and WebSphere software for Sparc hardware? At a competitive price? Will Larry, Prince of Darkness, be willing to meet them on the cost battlefield?
<(^B)<
Edit: I see from a responder who hit Post before I did that this is already the case for IBM sofware. Then I will tag my comment with - <(^B)< <(^B)<
Edited 2011-10-07 16:31 UTC