Survey: Oracle bad for Java

Open source database vendor EnterpriseDB is taking the fight to database market leader Oracle via a survey showing that respondents generally don't trust Oracle on prices, think Oracle is bad for Java and don't really like its CEO Larry Ellison, writes Cnet.

The survey was conducted at the JavaOne conference last September in San Francisco. More than 600 IT professionals completed the survey, the results of which provide a bit of insight into community sentiment regarding Oracle's control of open-source projects Java and MySQL.

While opinion polls generally tend to be fairly unscientific - especially when sponsored by rival vendors - the results seem to indicate the IT community is wary of Oracle's plans.

According to the results, 46% of respondents believe that open-source projects such as MySQL will stagnate under Oracle ownership. At the same time, 42% of respondents believe Oracle will raise the price for MySQL come renewal time.

Numbers can be deceiving though, says Gigaom.com. While only a small number actually think Oracle's lawsuit against Google will be bad for Java, 35% of respondents actually think open-source projects will thrive under Oracle, 38.4% expect their NoSQL prices to remain the same, and neither Steve Jobs (26.6%) nor Bill Gates (26%) fared too well on the dunk tank question either.

Despite a series of snubs toward the Java community, Oracle continues to engage and this week offered up a new Java Specification Request (JSR) 342, intended to convert Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 7 into a building block of cloud services. Oracle also intends to "solicit community contributions" according to The Register.