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Oracle hunger fallout: Will Red Hat survive?

Ex JBoss CEO says IBM might do the eating

By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View • Get more from this author

Posted in Open Season, 9th November 2007 19:19 GMT

HP whitepaper - The business case for Virtualization

Radio Reg Why let the Oracle/BEA spat die when you can open a hulking can of gasoline and pour fuel over the fire?

Open Season Episode 6 does just that with the help of former JBoss chief Marc Fleury. The now very wealthy software maverick joined me, Matt Asay (Alfresco) and Dave Rosenberg (Mulesource) for a deep look at what's going on with the middleware market, software consolidation and Red Hat.

Of particular note was Red Hat's future. Can the company survive on its own? If so, who does it buy to compete with the big boys? If not, who gets Red Hat first - Oracle or IBM?

The show, as usual, touches on a number of other subjects besides this middleware cruft. There's talk of Microsoft infiltrating the Nigerian government, VMware's take on open source code and the need for some serious open source talent. Take a look at the show notes for all the details.

In addition, I have a couple of things to plug. As always, please buy my book. It's outstanding or something like that. Also, Dave has fired up a new blog and Matt is beavering away on his blog. Last but not least, Maison Fleury blogs here.

And now on with the show.

Open Season - Episode 6

The faithful can grab the Ogg Vorbis file here, and those plagued by low-bandwidth can catch a smaller, crappier quality show here.

You can subscribe to the show on iTunes here or grab the Arse feed here.

Hungry Oracle

  • We've hit the bullshit round in BEA's acquisition journey
  • Marc reckons that IBM needs to buy Red Hat; I reckon that it ain't going to happen
  • Oracle will be the sexiest nun at the convent
  • Consolidation not open source is the dominant trend in software
  • Marc finds revenue streams sexy
  • Red Hat has JBoss indigestion
  • The challenge is becoming a multi-product company

Virtual Anger

Thanks for your ears. ®

Register editor Ashlee Vance has just pumped out a new book that's a guide to Silicon Valley. The book starts with the electronics pioneers present in the Bay Area in the early 20th century and marches up to today's heavies. Want to know where Gordon Moore eats Chinese food, how unions affected the rise of microprocessors or how Fairchild Semiconductor got its start? This is the book for you - available at Amazon US here or in the UK here.

HP whitepaper - The business case for Virtualization