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Oracle To Stop Developing Sun Virtualization Technologies

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-the-line dept.

hypnosec writes "Oracle will soon be announcing its decision to stop development of Sun virtualization technologies including Sun Ray Software and Hardware, Oracle Virtual Desktop Client, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) product lines. In an update to its support policies [Oracle support login required] for virtualization software and hardware, the database company has revealed that this decision is a result of its efforts to 'tightly align Oracle's future desktop virtualization portfolio investments with Oracle Corporation's overall core business strategy.'"

47 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oracle had a business strategy beyond "turn everything we touch into shit"?

    1. Re:Wait... by sjames · · Score: 5, Funny

      Something about synergistically embiggening Larry's masculinity compensation plumage for great justice.

    2. Re:Wait... by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      "Oracle had a business strategy beyond "turn everything we touch into shit"?"

      What? NO! This is part of their "turn everything to shit" campaign. Wait... I see. You mean OP is implying there is something beyond our known reality. Let's call it... the Twilight Zone.

    3. Re:Wait... by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      Oracle had a business strategy beyond "turn everything we touch into shit"?

      They do: "Turn everything we touch into shit and charge a friggin' ransom for it"

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  2. That's a shame by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Sun Rays are pretty handing technology. I was surprised at how well they work.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  3. Fuck you Oracle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You will not expand your market, you will shrivel, only your bribes to executives will keep you afloat. You destroyed a company that contributed more to the furtherance of computing and society as a whole than you will ever be able to achieve with your selfish business strategies and practices.

    1. Re:Fuck you Oracle by webmistressrachel · · Score: 2

      1 Person Liked this. Be the first of your friends!

      (ps Karma Bonus forfeited ;-) )

      --
      This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
    2. Re:Fuck you Oracle by rainer_d · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I have to agree. While everyone kind of liked SUN and cherished their accomplishments - few ever bought anything of them.
      It might have worked, if everybody actually using Solaris had also bought SUN x86 servers instead of installing it on generic hardware and bought more software from their stack. Additionally, for too long their business strategy seemed to be "Let's invent some mind-blowingly cool stuff and then have sales try to sell it to our customers".
      And this not for one product, but basically for almost all of the products they came up with in the last years.

      Oracle has no choice but to milk their current customers literally till the sun goes down.

      --
      Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
    3. Re:Fuck you Oracle by BitZtream · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For reference, what your post tells others is that you started this Internet thing late and missed the era where Sun was one of the big boys in the server and workstation arenas.

      Just because you were only around for their decline doesn't mean thats the way it always ways :)

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    4. Re:Fuck you Oracle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have to agree. While everyone kind of liked SUN and cherished their accomplishments - few ever bought anything of them.

      It might have worked, if everybody actually using Solaris had also bought SUN x86 servers instead of installing it on generic hardware and bought more software from their stack. Additionally, for too long their business strategy seemed to be "Let's invent some mind-blowingly cool stuff and then have sales try to sell it to our customers".

      And this not for one product, but basically for almost all of the products they came up with in the last years.

      Oracle has no choice but to milk their current customers literally till the sun goes down.

      No kidding. Sun's x86 hardware kicked ass. Unlike Dell and even HP, Sun actually engineered their x86 servers. They didn't just slap cheap-ass commodity components around the CPU.

      A recent customer went through a lot of trouble replace "old" Sun x86 hardware that had been around four or five years with new HP hardware - to "save money", because HP's servers were cheaper than Oracle's servers (that Sun designed...).

      Note I said "cheaper", not "less expensive". Yeah, the HP's were cheaper than the Sun servers. And slower. The four or five-year-old Sun x86 boxes were a shitload FASTER than the brand-spanking-new HP servers. Talk about a bunch of howling developers. I was laughing my ass off.

      And even with the Oracle markup, after my customer had to go out and buy licences for software to manage HP servers - OOOOOPS! (iLO software, etc), the HP boxes turned out to be more expensive than the equivalent Oracle (nee Sun) servers. At least Oracle doesn't charge extra for things like that.

      HP's servers also came with cheap off-brand FC HBAs that wouldn't play nice on the customer's SAN. Good God, crappy FC hardware that can't interoperate with other vendor's equipment was solved by QLogic et al a fucking decade ago.

    5. Re:Fuck you Oracle by jbolden · · Score: 2

      He's got a six digit number. I'm assuming he was around when Sun was one of the small boys making Unix workstations before any of them were big boys.

    6. Re:Fuck you Oracle by msk · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's a nickel. Go buy yourself a real computer.

      (The first Sun equipment I used was a Sun 3 workstation.)

    7. Re:Fuck you Oracle by ArhcAngel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually the problem was that they WERE great. SUN's products were pretty bulletproof and once you had one configured for what it needed to do it did it. That combined with the bubble of 2000 where SUN was overextended on several fronts is what tore the company apart.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    8. Re:Fuck you Oracle by Psion · · Score: 4, Funny

      Six digits, you say? Wow.

    9. Re:Fuck you Oracle by Isaac-Lew · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, I'm impressed.

    10. Re:Fuck you Oracle by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2

      Sun's hardware was, indeed, bulletproof. But at the end of 6 years, the extra money you spent on that single set of bullet proof hardware would have been better spent on 2 cheap sets of x86 hardware, with the second set 3 years newer and thus vastly more powerful, yielding an enormous improvement in available resources, with spare older hardware available for testing rigs or non-critical use. And their ongoing choices to develop their own processor technologies, combined with their decision to switch to AT&T style UNIX from BSD style UNIX, made cross-compatiblity and porting of open source software more and more difficult.

      Sun and their developers created or helped foster some very useful technologies. But critical, "business school" type decisions actively hampered the use of their hardwe, ranging from the their old mishandling of the "OpenWindows" as a forked and proprietized and thus incompatible version of X11, to their propietary serial port connectors on hardware servers, to their misnaming of JDK RPM packages as a filename that does not even resemble the actual installed package name, etc.

    11. Re:Fuck you Oracle by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      1) Please, stop that.

      2) Until someone can make a replacement for RAC that doesn't suck, isn't Microsoft**, won't cost a fortune, and doesn't require a degree in Cryptology to run? They'll (unfortunately) be around for a long, long time.

        *sigh*... I wish Postgres was better...

      ** SQL Server is cute and all, but tends to buckle under very heavy loads, and the clustering tech leaves way too much to be desired.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    12. Re:Fuck you Oracle by evilviper · · Score: 2

      SUN's products were pretty bulletproof and once you had one configured for what it needed to do it did it. That combined with the bubble of 2000 where SUN was overextended on several fronts is what tore the company apart.

      AMD's x86-64 and Linux are what killed Sun. Their hardware and OS was the core of their business, and that got undermined at exactly the same time as all the other proprietary Unix vendors. When the Itanium and AMD's x86-64 came out, proprietary hardware crashed big time, and only those with other massively profitable businesses were able to survive the crash. Namely, IBM and HP, though HP has been discontinuing proprietary platforms and OSes left and right ever since then.

      SGI, like Sun, had all their eggs in that one basket, and nothing valuable enough in their portfolio to convince a large company to buy them out.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    13. Re:Fuck you Oracle by afidel · · Score: 2

      You know absolutely nothing but you say much. HP offers HBA's from the three major players in the FC world, QLogic, Emulex, and Brocade. As far as cost, the 5 year cost of an HP box with 6 hour call to repair support is a fraction of what a Sun box will cost with platinum plus (or whatever they're calling it today, it's been since shortly after the Oracle takeover since I've bothered to get quotes)

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  4. Soon they kill Solaris by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This coming on the heals of XenServer going open source.
    As soon as they realize the futile effort of supporting Sun hardware (Niagara, Sparc) and Solaris which are not selling well, they will also cease supporting them as well.
    Frankly, I think IBM would have been a better company to have owned Sun and its assets.

    1. Re:Soon they kill Solaris by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You mean the same IBM that has sold/is selling off most of its assets?

    2. Re:Soon they kill Solaris by Score+Whore · · Score: 3, Informative

      This has nothing to do with that kind of virtualization. A much better headline would be:

      Oracle to Stop Developing Thin Clients

  5. Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by dcavens · · Score: 5, Informative

    As I had to RTFA to figure this out, thought I'd pass on that VirtualBox is still going to be actively developed.

    1. Re:Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For now.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    2. Re:Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The submitter undoubtedly knew that VirtualBox would be continued, but he also knew that the story wouldn't be accepted if it mentioned that fact, because it's all we're going to talk about in this thread.

    3. Re:Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As I had to RTFA to figure this out, thought I'd pass on that VirtualBox is still going to be actively developed.

      Virtualbox development, however, is now going to "tightly align ... with Oracle Corporation's overall core business strategy."

      Something tells me we may have a fork, and possibly a shift in Qemu development energy in the future.

    4. Re:Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      For now.

      Virtualbox is GPLed free software. Oracle owns the domain and trademark, so they could force everyone to change the name, and they could use FUD to scare people off. But they cannot kill it. It would be like their efforts to kill MySQL and OpenOffice. Those projects were set back some, and renamed, but they live on.

    5. Re:Clairification- VirtualBox is being continued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A lot of the open source vbox stuff doesn't work well for me - USB and sharing under linux.

      Hence I am using the oracle version, which is unfortunate.

  6. VirtualBox: Don't panic! by DigitAl56K · · Score: 4, Informative

    If, like me, the summary freaked you out, you'll be happy to hear that VirtualBox is not getting the axe.

    1. Re:VirtualBox: Don't panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      since [Ellison] was hired

      He kind of founded the company.

    2. Re:VirtualBox: Don't panic! by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 2

      As if it matters, the source is out there so if it was axed people would pick up where Oracle left off. Probably do a better job, too, seeing as how Ellison and the gang haven't managed to go through a single quarter without fucking something up since he was hired.

      Oracle is only relevant because a host of businesses made the mistake of investing in their technology. Unless every IT department on the face of the earth is entirely staffed by Alzheimer's patients, I'm guessing that strategy is only going to work for them so long. Exactly as long as it takes an open source alternative to replace them.

      Oracle VirtualBox to be replaced by LibreBox?

      I would definitely miss Oracle's proprietary extensions, but forking VirtualBox could be a good thing for VB/Qemu integration. Among other things, I'd expect to see more support for the Virtualbox FUSE plugins, and tighter integration of the virtualization framework with the Qemu core. End result might even be a single front end that can spin up a virtualized OR an emulated environment -- something to give MESS a run for its money as well as Parallels and VMWare.

  7. Re:Crap by sageres · · Score: 5, Funny

    Has anyone ever thought that the Oracle might be evil?

  8. Oracle support login required by ScottCooperDotNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yet another reason to avoid helping Larry buy another yacht.

  9. Diverse company... by CCarrot · · Score: 2

    "Oracle To Stop Developing Sun Virtualization Technologies"

    Huh. I didn't even know they were in the tanning bed business...better grab one while they're 'hot'! :p

    --
    "I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
  10. Fork you Oracle! by DrJimbo · · Score: 4, Funny

    FTFW

    --
    We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
    -- Anais Nin
  11. Re:Crap by EvilSS · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oracle just wants to destroy everything that was good about the Sun.

    Oh, so they are staying in the storage business then.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  12. Re:What does Oracle even do anymore? by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Informative

    I doubt they would be killing them off if they were profitable. I do a lot of work in the virtualization and VDI space (not all of it by choice, mind you) and I have never run into anyone even asking about Oracle in those regards. AFAIK the only thing that could be considered really successful is Virtual Box and it's sticking around, thank [omnipotent bearded deity #4].

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  13. Re:Another take on this... by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My theory is that thousands of dot bombs were buying Sun stuff in the boom and the success at that point didn't even depend on management turning up, so they got lazy and could not adapt to conditions after the crash. After that they couldn't even sell excellent stuff to people that really wanted it, not unless the customers had a hidden black-ops budget and orders to kill any approaching accountants on sight (the same problem IBM has with power stuff now). Increasing scarcity meant that a lot of commercial software no longer had the newer versions ported to Sparc and there wasn't really a way to justify buying Sun x86 gear. So Sun ended up trying to push a lot of good stuff at three times the price of stuff that was half as good, which meant people would just go out and buy two of the things that were half as good instead.

  14. Re:Another take on this... by oxdas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think most people would hate Oracle if all they did was "keep what works and get rid of what doesn't." After all, Google dumps far more unprofitable products each year and they have a much better reputation on these boards. Oracle has earned its reputation by repeatedly attacking the very foundations of the tech industry in the (short-sighted) pursuit of higher profit margins from more vendor lock-in. This is the root of the anti-Oracle bias, not scrapping a few products.

  15. Re:What does Oracle even do anymore? by Rob_Bryerton · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oracle has a huge, HUGE product portfolio. ERP, middle-ware, you name it.

    My opinion is that they bought Sun to gain ownership and control of Java, period. Full stop. Tons of their software relies heavily on it.

    I also think they will eventually discard or sell off every last bit of the former Sun properties/technologies (other than Java) not only because very little of it is relevant or profitable anymore, but also to discard the employees who develop and support these items.

    Oracle: Where Technology Goes to Die.

  16. How to ruin a good company. by peterwargo · · Score: 2

    Sad, truly sad. I used to work for Sun, there were wonderful, bright, and talented people working there. Not to mention some really great products, like the SunRay, as well as lots of good stuff in the pipeline. Oracle could've revitalized Sun. Instead, they completely screwed up. Besides ruining a perfectly good product line, they gutted one of the best support organizations in the industry and alienated long- time customers. I'm proud that I had a chance to work for Sun, and saddened to see it end up this way.

  17. Re:What does Oracle even do anymore? by jbolden · · Score: 2

    They sell a well know database used for relational and data warehousing
    They own a 1/2 dozen other important databases: MySQL, Berkley, Times Ten...
    The Java ecosystem
    JD Edwards ERP
    Peoplesoft (#1 HR)
    Oracle Financials
    Oracle CRM
    Oracle Fusion Middleware
    Oracle Business Analytics
    etc...

    They are huge and they do a ton.

  18. Re:Another take on this... by jbolden · · Score: 2

    When did Sun attempt to monopolize Unix? During most of the Sun years: SGI, SCO, Dec, Compaq, AIX (IBM)... were all players. And then of course the Linux and the BSDs came along and were major players.

  19. Bullshit bingo by L.+J.+Beauregard · · Score: 2

    "tightly align Oracle's future desktop virtualization portfolio investments with Oracle Corporation's overall core business strategy"

    WTF does that mean?

    --
    Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
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  20. Oracle makes it official by hypnosec · · Score: 2

    For those who don't have an Oracle support login here is the official announcement through a blog post.

  21. Re:Crap by BestNicksRTaken · · Score: 2

    Maybe Larry is a vampire, as he seems to want to block out the Sun....

    --
    #include <sig.h>
  22. Re:Another take on this... by fred_jb · · Score: 2

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars Basically Sun got together with AT&T in 1987 to create, and it was feared, control, a merged version of BSD and System V.