If it weren't for VirtualBox I would avoid them all together. It's just so damned convenient though.
This is an enemy of my enemy case.
It makes sense to trust Oracle in this instance as they stand to lose if IBM has sole control over enterprise Linux.
However, remember that as soon as the profit motive is gone, Oracle's support will also vanish.
Never again. Twice I’ve been at fast-growing startups that went with Oracle, and both times it was the worst mistake the business made.
I wish he'd respond. But from my experience, Oracle sells you a license that's just what you need, nothing more. They do so on good terms to get you in the door. Then when you rely on their database they jack up the rates and start ridiculous pricing strategies that either force you to rearchitect away from Oracle entirely or sacrifice your ability to use their product and force you to work around their license.
It's not difficult to guess: they got EA'd. IBM'd. FaceBook'd. Their startup got bought up, hollowed out, and dissolved. All in the name of killing off competition and padding staff rolls.
I've found many startups are merely "investments" by some entrepreneur that were intended from inception, whether explicitly or not, to be grown to a sufficiently negotiable state and sold to the biggest buyer. That's not to say that big tech companies don't buy-out their competition, but many startups also dream of being bought-out.
