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Comment by kinsomo | Hacker News Reader

I can't read most of the article because of the paywall, but I'm glad Oracle's greed is catching up to it. Besides its database and Java (which is still really Sun), every of their products I've been forced to use have been overpriced, poorly supported crap.

Also, their cloud pricing must be really bad. My employer has been 100% Oracle database for decades, but it's now officially banned from all cloud projects due to licensing cost.

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We used to use PostgreSql. But our CIO was able to negotiate very inexpensive Oracle licenses. Now we have a bunch of crappy databases that are a pain to upgrade. But we are saving a lot of money.

Are you really saving money, if you wouldn't have spent it otherwise?

I mean, how can you know that even the worst postgresql installation wouldn't require only 10% of what you're paying now in contractors/support?

I think he meant that sarcastically. PostgreSQL is free, aside from support costs, while Oracle has a license fee. But they're "saving" money because they negotiated a "cheaper" license fee.

This like like how it's more economical for me to buy a top-end $100k Mercedes if I can negotiate a $10k savings off of MSRP, rather than a low-end $17k Toyota where I can only negotiate $500 off of the MSRP. See, with the Mercedes S-class, I'm saving $10k!!! I wouldn't save $10k with the Toyota... \s

We went from free and great to cheap and crappy.

But the CIO got to show off his negotiating skills.

That's page 37, section 2 of the Oracle sales playbook.

He was able to negotiate a better price than free? Or were you paying for Postgre pro and a support contract?

I bet in a couple of years the next CIO will discover that the TCO is quite a bit higher then expected.

Heh, that's the trap. Your CIO bluffed them into a price this time. You can be sure you will be in for an unpleasant surprise next time you go to renew.

I've seen similar. No more Oracle licenses at any price.

Same here. After what honestly seemed like a mob-style shakedown for licensing fees last year (they honestly used the threat of litigation to force us to buy their cloud offerings), my employer is in the process of migrating 20+ years of Oracle-backed apps to the .NET ecosystem.

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