Financial Times: Is open source going to be disruptive to Oracle?
Larry Ellison: No. If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it. Take [the web server software] Apache: once Apache got better than our own web server, we threw it away and took Apache. So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it – a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do.
And as open source slowly eats into their proprietary products, they have less and less to differentiate themselves from any other software company, and it becomes harder to lock customers in to their platform.
Oracle will have plenty to differentiate themselves from 'any other software company.' Even if all they are offering is support, they are a trusted brand name among middle-management.
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto041820061...
Financial Times: Is open source going to be disruptive to Oracle?
Larry Ellison: No. If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it. Take [the web server software] Apache: once Apache got better than our own web server, we threw it away and took Apache. So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it – a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do.