Oracle and Sun back at loggerheads

WELL THAT didn't take long. Only a fortnight ago Oracle's Larry Ellison and Sun's Scott McNealy were sharing a podium and proclaiming undying mutual respect and a shared technical vision that they said would last 10 years.

A little over 10 days later and the two companies have clashed bitterly over Oracle's support for Sun's NetBeans software, used in the development of Java apps.

Clearly there was a bit of a misunderstanding in the detail. McNealy has been trumpeting Oracle's backing for NetBeans, prompting Ellison to hastily qualify that support. Ellison's basic gist is: “Well, NetBeans is all very well in its way, but you really want Oracle's JDeveloper if you're serious about Java apps for the server.” Plus Oracle is a backer of the Eclipse initiative, a rival to NetBeans.

McNealy has said, rather huffily, that NetBeans is growing in popularity with or without Oracle's backing. But clearly it's something he'd rather counted on. µ

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