Oracle/Sun Enforces Pay-For-Security-Updates Plan

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Oracle/Sun Enforces Pay-For-Security-Updates Plan

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 23, 2010 @03:35AM from the you-get-what-you-pay-for dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Recently, the Oracle/Sun conglomerate has denied public download access to all service packs for Solaris unless you have a support contract. Now, paying a premium for gold-class service is nothing new in the industry, but withholding critical security updates smacks of extortion. While this pay-for-play model may be de rigueur for enterprise database systems, it is certainly not the norm for OS manufactures. What may be more interesting is how Oracle/Sun is able to sidestep GNU licensing requirements since several of the Solaris cluster packs contain patches to GNU utilities and applications."

9 of 238 comments (clear)

That's a nice server you got there by bigredradio · 2010-03-23 03:36 · Score: 5, Funny

It would be a shame is something was to happen to it.

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1. Re:That's a nice server you got there by Em+Emalb · 2010-03-23 03:40 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  That's a nice joke you have there. It'd be a shame if someone were to moderate it. ;)
  
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2. Re:That's a nice server you got there by Em+Emalb · 2010-03-23 03:57 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Guess I picked the wrong day to threaten mafia jokes.
  
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3. Re:That's a nice server you got there by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-23 06:17 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  commodore64_love is a moron. At least 50% of the time his posts consist of bitching because the ancient free computers he obtained while dumpster diving don't run the latest, greatest software (which he almost certainly pirated anyway). What a loser...
Re:Was to be exepected by hoggoth · 2010-03-23 04:26 · Score: 4, Funny

I wanted to play with a particular technology from a company that was acquired by a company that was acquired by Oracle. I called Oracle and got passed from department to department. Nobody had ever even heard of this technology or the company they had acquired years ago. One rep was willing to sell me a license to use the technology for many thousands of dollars even though he himself couldn't find any mention of it inside Oracle, with the caveat that I would have to FIND IT myself because he didn't have any idea where it might be. After being transferred back to the same person the fourth or fifth time I gave up with the phone and started googling for the technology. I found a web page deep inside Oracle's website that had the entire thing, source code and all, available. There were no disclaimers, there was no license, just instructions on how to download it, compile it, install it, and use it.
So I did.
I suspect Oracle is run by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

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Re:The licensed the software, by Anonymous Coward · 2010-03-23 04:36 · Score: 1, Funny

Funny
Re:Was to be exepected by sjames · 2010-03-23 06:24 · Score: 3, Funny

If only Oracle had one of those data-thingamajigies that lets you search for information and retrieve it.
Re:Just like Redhat by harmonise · 2010-03-23 06:28 · Score: 5, Funny

o rly?
O'Reilly is over here: ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/

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Re:Absurd! by zwede · 2010-03-23 09:05 · Score: 2, Funny

That would be the traditional capitalist way. The modern capitalist way would be to hire lobbyists to convince government to pass a law making ethics illegal.