Sun/Oracle removed public firmware downloads

http://techbert.tumblr.com/post/569726833/sun-oracle-removed-public-firmware-downloads

by viraptor • 16 years ago

36 25 16 years ago

techbert.tumblr.com

c00p3r2• 16 years ago

Nothing to see here. Oracle want its own, totally controlled market, with their hardware and their software, like that IBM have.

You want support - pay us. You want updates - pay us. You want JRE - pay us (coming soon =)

viraptor3• 16 years ago

I could understand such system for new downloads... but this just seems insane. They had to implement a new system, change the old one, retrain the phone monkeys and then waste time of both the support guys and their managers, because the issue is not easy to resolve. They might potentially gain some new annoyed support customers, but the rest will not be likely to go for Sun hardware in the future if they have a choice.

Is alienating customers ever a good choice? Apple's new rules, Facebook privacy, now Oracle... who's next?

c00p3r2• 16 years ago

It seems like the easiest way to make money in the post-opensource era - pay a small sum for your each move. =)

gaius• 16 years ago

Yet, right now, you can go to technet.oracle.com and download Oracle's flagship product for free, and it's always been thus.

BonoboBoner• 16 years ago

If they force me to pay for the JRE, I will switch to Python subito.

prog• 16 years ago

Once Python becomes fast with unladen-swallow then I don't think I would bother with Java :)

mstevens3• 16 years ago

I'm starting to worry about the future of clojure, given that it's based on the JVM.

mahmud• 16 years ago

Clojure on .NET CLR is coming along nicely. and if you want bare-metal, you can always switch to Common Lisp.

rbanffy4• 16 years ago

You can use the OpenJDK to host Clojure.

At least until Oracle decides they want to collect some money for all Sun patents they bought with the package.

Oh boy... This is getting really nasty real quick.

boris• 16 years ago

Oracle removed public downloads of pretty much everything except the initial releases of some products. Patches for Solaris, Sun Studio, etc., all require paid support ("entitlement" in Oracle speak). So if you had a Solaris installation and hit some bugs, your only choice is to re-install using the latest release, provided it is available. For Sun Studio the situation is even more insane: traditionally the initial releases of their C/C++ compiler were always so buggy that it required immediate patching to make them usable. And since Sun historically does not release updates for their compilers (unlike Solaris), this makes Sun Studio pretty much useless unless you have paid for support.

The firmware story is hilarious. You should go read some comments on Sun's website. People bought Sun hardware and when they went to download drivers to make that hardware work with their OS, they were told they needed to pay for "software support" to get them. What they got with hardware was apparently "hardware support" and it doesn't cover drivers/firmware. One word: insane.

viraptor3• 16 years ago

> when they went to download drivers to make that hardware work with their OS, they were told they needed to pay for "software support"

I smell a class action lawsuit if that's true. It's one thing to make obtaining the drivers more difficult, but completely something else to remove access to something already offered and available to users when they paid for hardware. (PS3 otheros comes to mind now...)

pilib2• 16 years ago

Huh. I guess that after recent changes (Solaris downloads, etc.), most people will find alternative vendors in both hardware and software arena.

It's not like there's no competition anyways. It is funny though, that a company like Sun, after acquisition by Oracle is deploying procedures we more commonly associate with IBM, HP, and other behemoths of the IT world.

viraptor3• 16 years ago

Wait - you don't associate Oracle with a behemoth? You know they target large corporations and will happily recommend you to buy a cluster of 64GB 8+ core machines, right? Have a look at validated configurations... I can think of only one larger database company, but they design stuff for you from scratch.

pilib2• 16 years ago

heh, I do actually, maybe I should have phrased it better ;).

My point was, Sun was trying to be a hip and modern company, open sourcing a lot of their work, and then Oracle bought them and in the best impersonation of Eric Cartman, just said "you damn hippies" :), and fucked all that effort up.

I did expect it to happen, but I'm still sad it did happen.

Sun/Oracle removed public firmware downloads

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