X

Survey: Oracle bad for Java, MySQL (infographic)

According to results of EnterpriseDB survey, 46 percent of respondents believe open-source projects like MySQL will stagnate under Oracle ownership.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
Dave Rosenberg
2 min read

On March 3, database vendor EnterpriseDB is set to release the results of its survey conducted at the JavaOne conference last September in San Francisco.

More than 600 IT professionals completed the survey, the results of which provide a bit of insight into community sentiment regarding Oracle's control of open-source projects Java and MySQL.

While opinion polls generally tend to be fairly unscientific--especially when sponsored by rival vendors--the results seem to indicate the IT community is wary of Oracle's plans.

According to the results, 46 percent of respondents believe that open-source projects such as MySQL will stagnate under Oracle ownership. At the same time, 42 percent of respondents believe Oracle will raise the price for MySQL come renewal time.

While not surprising, these two statistics may be at odds with each other. Oracle is always looking to optimize revenue streams and is unlikely to let MySQL falter too much. In fact, I'm confident Oracle is acutely aware of exactly what knobs and dials to tweak in order to extract the most revenue possible while providing as much value as it feels appropriate.

Another interesting statistic, and I believe a more realistic concern, is Oracle's lawsuit against Google, a situation that 56 percent of respondents indicated would not be a good thing for Java.

And yet despite a series of snubs toward the Java community, Oracle continues to engage and just this week offered up a new Java Specification Request (JSR) 342, intended to convert Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 7 into a building block of cloud services. Oracle also intends to "solicit community contributions" according to The Register.

Whatever the outcome, there is no denying that infographics like this are big fun.

 
Open source vs. Oracle
Open source vs. Oracle EnterpriseDB