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Oracle forms new 'axis of evil' against open source, claims Adobe

Larry effect turns FOSS into 'cash cow'

Oracle has replaced Microsoft as the FOSS community’s number one enemy, according to Adobe System’s open source boss.

David McAllister, the Flash and Photoshop maker’s open source and standards director, said in a blog post yesterday that the implosion of the OpenSolaris Governing Board highlighted how “the axis of evil has shifted south about 850 miles or so”.

The lack of love Oracle has shown for the “open source culture of Sun [Microsystems]” since Larry Ellison’s company bought the MySQL database firm earlier this year has unnerved many in the FOSS world. And McAllister couldn’t resist putting the boot in about the whole sorry affair.

"I have no problem making money from open source code," he wrote. "I have no problem with others doing so. I do have problems with removing community involvement once it has shown that it can create, drive, and maintain such efforts.

"I do wonder who's next in the shift from open source commitment that Oracle seems to be leading."

McAllister pointed out that during Oracle’s recent keynote speech at LinuxCon 2010 in Boston, the company failed to make any mention of OpenSolaris.

By mid-August, Ellison had canned the OpenSolaris development project.

“Combine this with the sudden patent lawsuit on Java against Google Android… and suddenly Oracle has managed to move into the role formerly played by Microsoft," he said. "And I didn’t even know that they were understudying it.

“Oracle has smart people. They understand open source and its drive to developers. And yet, suddenly, it seems that Oracle is viewing ‘Open Source’ as a new cash cow." ®

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