back to article HP-Oracle: It’s war for sure, Miss Scarlett

The hot war between HP and Oracle got quite a bit hotter last week as HP filed suit accusing Oracle of breaching contracts and demanding a jury trial in California. The Reg has been all over this story, with articles from our pal TPM (latest here ) and Andrew Orlowski (here). The court filing is interesting reading. It …

COMMENTS

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  1. cloudgazer

    Straight out of the Microsoft playbook

    'I’ve been around a bit and have seen some pretty hard-core competitive tactics. But I can’t think of anything that sinks to this level.'

    Clearly you haven't been around that much then. How about when Microsoft withheld updates to the Mac edition of office back in the 90s?

    Anyway - it's not like Oracle are the only people fleeing the Itanic - Microsoft has declared it won't be supporting it in future.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Oracle build engineers must be going crazy! :)

    Turning off ia64 target from all scripts so no itanium binaries get built without breaking stuff... Interesting times and all that.

    1. Stoneshop
      Headmaster

      Simple

      !# oracle build script "special", v1.0, last edited 20110527 14:35 PST by LE

      make Oracle_$version

      rm -Rv /Build/Oracle/$version/target/ia64/*

      exit

  3. Long John Brass
    Linux

    Smart move

    Would be funny to see IBM step up with a similar deal saying,

    Hey customers, Enjoy getting caught between HP & Oracle,

    Why not try our stuff? The first hit is always free :)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Brutal or non Brutal is not relevant

    HP lawyers are muppets.

    Brutal or non-brutal, contract or non-contract is irrelevant. Withholding fixes is similarly irrelevant. Withholding fixes for software where Oracle is a 'significant market power' (as per competition law definition) specifically in order to leverage it as a competitive advantage in other markets (hardware) is a total no-no.

    If even one moderately idiotic Snoracle salesdroid did exactly what is described in this article and even if he did it on his own initiative HP should be filing with the EC and the DOJ straight away. That is a 1bn fine right there and mandatory relief to boot. EC has learned to process complaints of that nature in under 2 years so it is likely to be finished before a US court case too.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    hp need better scanners

    canon? Ricoh? Lots to choose from...

    Anyroad, please wake me when there is NEWS not speculation on Hurd vs HP.

  6. jai

    a better intern?

    that's an oxymoron if ever i heard one

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wipe the floor with 'em HP

    It's about time Oracle are taught a lesson in ethics. I hope Oracle lose big time - not only on the HP count but also Google too. I despise just about everything about the egomaniac Larry, Oracle and his mini me Hurd.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    HP Legal dept scanners

    It's ironic their document scans are poor seeing as they have a little more access to scanners than the average company.

  9. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Brutal?

    "HP alleges that Oracle sales reps take advantage of this shut-out by pitching a Sun box to handle the workload, offering them at below-cost or, in some cases, free of charge."

    So when you report a bug, not only do they offer to give you a working version of the program, they offer to give you new hardware to run it on as well.

    I think you should look up "brutal" in the dictionary. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    HP need a good kicking

    They are a complete shambles, their hardware is about as reliable as your average MP and their software about as buggy as NT4 was. Their support structure is disjointed and often clueless and it takes an absolute age to get your case escalated to anyone who actually knows their stuff. It's supposed to be a follow the Sun service (no pun intended but indeed they might), more like wait for it to come round again....

    I don't necessarily agree with Oracle's tactics but HP really need to get their act together before they start haemorrhaging customers regardless of whatever they think anyone else is doing to them.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dan the consultant - bit of an HP Fanboi?

    Dan,

    You're coming across, again, as a bit of a Fan Boi (we all are but you are meant to be objective). You haven't made any mention of the fact that apparently, true or not, Oracle claims Leo and Ray know Intel are killing the CPU but won't tell customers. Surely that is valid context to the discussion or do you want a one sided article.

    Perhaps you should remind readers that HP's 2 "Big" partners, Microsoft and RedHat have pulled the plug on Itanium? You also say "I’ve been around a bit and have seen some pretty hard-core competitive tactics. But I can’t think of anything that sinks to this level."

    Could you name a couple of customers who've told you this? Or in the best traditions of your reporting are you going to take HP at its word? (Whose CEO ran to Japan to avoid taking the stand despite his last company, SAP, under his leadership stealing Oracle IP. Larry is a hard and tough businessman yes, Leo is a known thief.)

    Does Gabriel Consulting provide objective analysis?

    El Reg needs objective journalists again who attack everyone (IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, etc) equally, not this partisan rubbish which almost seems vendor sponsored. Bring back Ashley and rap Dan and Tim across the knuckles "I must try to be objective in my writing and write balanced articles - boot em all" 100 times boys

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