December 16, 2020. Dave Welch (@OraVBCA), Executive License Consultant, Chief Evangelist
I have two anniversaries that I celebrate annually back-to-back: December 16th & 17th. Don’t tell my wife I actually wondered aloud in a client licensing workshop today which is more important.
Mars v. Oracle was dismissed at Mars’ initiative five years ago today.
There was obviously an out of court agreement between Oracle and Mars that led to the lawsuit’s dismissal. If anything about that agreement was the least bit in Oracle’s favor, surely we would have since seen what is still arguably the largest database vendor in the world cherry picking legal action against weak gazelles in the Oracle on VMware herd to establish intellectual property rights. Imagine the size of Oracle’s financial incentive to do so. Rather, what is painfully obvious is that Oracle has chosen not to see its VMware–is–as–good–as–installed–everywhere argument picked apart in court with the stenographer capturing every delicious detail for the eternal public record.
I believe there are too many entities running Oracle on VMware that don’t understand the power of their position. Any is too many, and I believe there are too many. Oracle’s silence in the courts screams more loudly with every passing month, let alone year.
I am very sympathetic to the fear issue. But do people understand the real significance of me closing this annual post with “We’ll see you all next December?”
- 2017 blog post: The Sound of Silence: Celebrating the Two–Year Anniversary of the Dismissal of Mars v. Oracle.
- 2018 blog post: … Three–Year Anniversary ...
- 2019 blog post: … Four–Year Anniversary ...
