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back to article MySQL handler Jacobs walks out on Oracle

Oracle's open source strategy was looking a little fenced in this morning, after the database giant lost one of its most prominent voices and OpenOffice was snubbed by Ubuntu developers. Ken Jacobs resigned from Oracle late last week, according to reports. Jacobs was vice president of product strategy in Oracle's server …

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  1. rabidbadger
    WTF?

    Q. When is a promise not a promise?

    A. When it's made by Canonical/Ubuntu.

    Front page of the Ubu website (http://www.ubuntu.com/) we have: "The Ubuntu promise... Ubuntu core applications are all free and open source". Google Docs is open source? Really? Great job, $huttleworth.

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  2. TeeCee Gold badge
    Linux

    Open Office snubbed?

    "...in Ubuntu Netbook Edition...."

    Ah, makes sense now. Seeing as the whole idea of netbooks was that their el cheapo specification would be disguised by the use of cloudy applications, it seems that Canonical are the first to get it right in this segment by having their netbook OS default to using same OOB. Let's face it, it's either that or sit on their hands and wait until ChromeOS (which has this approach built in) cleans their clock for 'em.

    I'd say it's only Google docs because if you want an alternative you're pretty much shit out of luck right now. I'm sure this won't stop the conspiracy types and freetards slinging the jolly old vitriol around though.

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  3. Mountford D

    Netbook only?

    Dropping OO from the Netbook platform does make sense as the device is supposed to an Internet device as opposed to it being used as a small laptop. We can only hope that OO remains in the desktop distribution as from my experience, OO and its compatibility with Ms Office has been a major factor in convincing users to move from Windows to a Linux platform (Ubuntu).

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  4. Duncan Hothersall
    Happy

    Cue outrage directed at Ubuntu...

    But in reality, Google Docs with Gears for clean offline access is a very effective setup for a netbook, which many people have already adopted, and if people don't want the default they can change it in about two clicks.

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  5. Mage Silver badge
    FAIL

    Google Docs

    Is a remote application. Not my application.

    Absolute fail

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      Yes, your post does ...

      Google Docs with Gears does not require internet access to edit/save/work on/etc documents. Try things before commenting on them please.

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  6. Number6

    Net Connection

    What use is an office suite on a portable system if it requires an internet connection? Many places I use my netbook there's no net connection, and I don't see why I should pay for a 3G dongle (not that 3G coverage is going to cover those places either).

    Oh wait, I don't use Ubuntu anyway.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Hmm.

    With the state of 3G support in the UK outside of London, I think i will stick with Openoffice thank you.

    At least actual support rather than claimed support.

    Apparently my house is in a Vodaphone Mobile broadband area, Oh how we laughed! (Never managed greater than 2kb/sec ever)

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Googuntoo

    I use Ubuntu all the time. I avoid Google like the plague. Why would I want Google Docs on an Ubuntu Netbook? So that I can have my stuff datamined by Google? So that I can get being spied on as a service, completely free? I do hope Mark Shuttleworth listened to Eben Moglen's take at ISOC-NY last week:

    http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338

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  9. lukewarmdog
    Badgers

    no dongle for old men

    Mine was awesome from Manchester to London and back again on Virgin trains.

    As for netbooks, mine's running XP and Microsoft Office. Compatibility issues? None here.

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  10. Patrick O'Reilly
    Linux

    sudo apt-get install ***

    It's not exactly hard to get OO.org on the NBR even if GDocs is default. I can see why they went with Google Docs, a number of other netbook distros have recently.

    If OO.org is too power hungry there are always alternatives like AbiWord.

    Does this mean that Mozilla Prisim and Google Gears will be installed by default?

    Gears is open sauce so no-one here should have a problem with that.

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  11. Eddy Ito
    Coat

    Is it that hard really?

    Installing OO in Ubuntu is easy enough, but I suppose it's just a matter of aptitude.

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  12. SisterClamp
    IT Angle

    Wow, all these replies...

    ...and nothing on Ken Jacob's resignation. C'mon guys, focus!

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  13. uncertified-dba

    Ken Jacobs leaving Oracle is huge!

    http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/Spokespeople/016285

    Ken joined Oracle in 1981 as the lead in the Washington D.C. sales office. He morphed into the key customer advocate inside Oracle, then into open source. His leaving with the reasons given is absolutely a huge thing, not because Oracle won't survive without him but because of what it says about where the company is going. It's obviously going very fast in a direction he didn't want to go, and given he's been there since 1981 (and who he is, I was there from 1983-1985 and know him) and that he is in many ways the customer face for Oracle software, that means something major.

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