Why is this? Is it the because databases and web servers are not cool anymore? Or maybe just because Oracle does not sell consumer products?
They're enterprisey. They do boring stuff. They're evil.
What's there to like? Why would I want to work for them?
Why do you think Oracle does boring stuff? For example, both Oracle and Google work hard to make very scalable and highly available systems - but somehow Oracle is boring while Google is exciting.
You mention "they're evil". Why do you think Oracle is evil? Why do you think Oracle is more evil than Facebook, Apple, or Google?
But I would assume that for most in this case, boring means sameness. Most of us hear about new Google products and technology every day. What was the last Oracle innovation you heard about? Thus, we know far more about Google products and culture because they're interesting; they get written, published, and discussed.
Could it be that since oracle inventions are mainly in enterprise space and these technologies are not generally available to consumers, so they are never publicized not discussed in venues blogs and forums like this? You can only can see ad in WSJ and that is the end of the story.
System level stuff is interesting, what's boring is the enterprise.
Why are they evil? Android law suit.
Also maybe the fact they just rebrand RHEL and try to sell it. Granted, it is legal (due to the GPL), but it's still evil. They view open-source as an opportunity to leech technology for free and resell it after they rebrand it (and possible add proprietry extensions to it). Their CEO is quoted saying "if an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it. [...] So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it – a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do."
And perhaps the reason Oracle lacks similar popularity with Google, is because Oracle is soul-crushing. Although some people might say the same about Google these days.
Who'd want to work for such a company? Seriously.
I don't care if Oracle's so called distro does any damage to RedHat or not, it's the fact that Oracle is pulling dirty moves like this; that's what makes me perceive the company as evil.
They sell support.
Maybe it's coz they don't hire hackers!
What is definition of hacker in this context? Web 2.0 / javascript developer? Or self-learned developer?
When it's just a J.O.B. and there's no passion, then it is not hacking. Many people programming in large corporations are not interested in challenging themselves with new stuff. Their biggest challenge is getting through another dreary day and not going postal on the pointy headed boss.