“Open source is not something to be feared. Open source is something to be explained. Open source wins not because it’s open and not because it’s free. Open source wins only when it’s better” – Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle

Oracle is opening a number of IT positions in our country, which is excellent news. Its CEO, the famous Larry Ellison, has shared his ideas on open source and free software several times, but I want to highlight this interview, from which I took the quote at the top.

Web 2.0 and Oracle

Ellison is asked whether he considers Web 2.0 a mere fluctuation or a technology that will change the way business is done, to which he replies: “Do I think Web 2.0 is overrated? I think every generation thinks that their set of innovations will quickly replace everything that came before.”

“I think Web 2.0 is an extremely important innovation. I think we constantly come up with new technologies. But those new technologies take a very long time to fully displace technologies that came before.”

“Oracle has deeply invested in Web 2.0. Our future middleware, Fusion, is based on Web 2.0. Our new tool set and applications are based on Web 2.0.”

What does all this mean? That is something we will have to see. But Oracle has always been good at spotting these “fluctuations” in technology and catching the right waves.

It has done so with the web, with Java, and with free software in the past, so Ellison’s words are not pure marketing. If he says they are building Web 2.0 into their technologies, I believe them.

The cost of free software

“The Apache web server is currently the most successful open source product in the world,” “It displaced Microsoft IIS not because it was free and not because it was open source, but because it was more secure and faster, and more reliable,” says Ellison.

Ellison thinks Linux has done well competing against Microsoft’s Windows, but that there is confusion around the idea that because software is free it will displace proprietary software.

"…the purchase price of software is only about 10 percent of the total cost of ownership of software. So even if the software is free, the most you can save is 10 percent off. Now the question is, what are your other costs of developing applications, of running applications on a daily basis, of dealing with problems when they occur? We think that Oracle is absolutely very competitive with open source."

“Whenever open source gets to be better than what we do, like in the case of Apache and Linux, we will simply adopt it, distribute it and support it.”

That is the key to the sustainability of free software and open source: programming pays well, but developing world-class software pays better, as Linus Torvalds says, and Oracle is one of those who understand the value of quality software, and it backs it and supports it financially.