Shai on Open Source, Oracle

UPDATE: I just changed the title of this post from "SAP Slams Open Source, Oracle" to "Shai on Open Source, Oracle" because SAP is a company rich in divergent views on any subject, so while Shai's comments hold one view there are many others in the company. Also, I listened to the podcasts of Shai's Churchill Club interview and I would encourage you to do the same to form your own opinion of what he was saying. I'm certainly not going to pretend that I can speak for Shai, but his comments when taken in the full context of the interview were certainly not as hostile to open source as the pull quotes that I have seen.

I wasn't at the Churchill Club event so I can't comment on the context of Shai's comments, but I do not agree with them if they are as represented in this article. His comments about Oracle are accurate, but you really wouldn't be surprised to hear me say that :)

Open Source is no silver bullet to be sure, but open source is less about software and code, and more about a new development process that is highly collaborative and social in it's roots. I'm no open source zealot to be sure, but it does strike me that this is possibly one of the best proposals for unleashing developer productivity, developing new applications (Firefox), and creating a new class of infrastructure technology (too many to list).

The IP issues surrounding open source are legitimate but I would not go as far as equating them with socialism because even in open source IP is treated as property that is owned and licensed. The industry is evolving hybrid licensing models that accomplish much of what open source set out to do while also rewarding companies for investing in real development.

Link: CIO Today - Worldwide Technology - SAP Slams Open Source, Oracle.

Open source will fail to deliver innovation and is more likely to break applications, said SAP Latest News about SAP executive Shai Agassi, president of the company's product and technology group.

"We all talk about how great Linux Latest News about Linux is," Agassi said at a speaking engagement at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley. "But if you look at what the most innovative desktop is today, Vista is not copying Linux, they are copying Apple. "

Comments

[Jason Wood]

Jeff,

Shai's comments are taken out of context in that article (surprise, surprise)...I've blogged a bit about Shai and some other aspects of the Analyst Day if you want a clearer picture of what he said.

Wood

[Jason Wood]

Jeff,

My apologies. Thought the article was referring to his comments at the Analyst Day earlier this week, but now I've seen it was at the Churchill Club. Reading what he said, I'm not sure I understand where he's coming from, particularly because it contradicts some of the messages he put forth to the analyst community.

[Frank Koehntopp]

Awwww... not again.... I mean, there's no need for him to say Open Source is the silver bullet, but what's the use of alienating the OSS community? I don't really see them competing with SAP anywhere.

[Randy Charles Morin]

Actually, he's definately wrong on one count. Open Source encourages innovation. Quite often when I write code and make it public domain, 5-6 other developers claim to have written the same code the next week or month. So, we now claim to innovate 5 times everytime we actually innovate. Open source encourage innovation (or copyright, whatever).

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jeff,it's gutsy of you to have even pointed it out given you work for SAP. It's healthy. The reality is SAP is feeling price and innovation pressure. Shai's sspeech reflects both. You have a short term vaccum with Oracle's issues, but no reason to be opportunisitic about it. The reason someone like SW Airlines has had profits for 30+ years is they are disciplined on pricing. Last minute full fare anyweher on system is $ 299. You think they could not charge $ 1,000 on some routes? They do not. SAP has not shown the same discipline and as a result you are encouraging price competition - from the open source, SaaS, third party maintenance and other communities. On innovation, Shai keeps talking about Web Services. Most of your customers I talk to think it is still nebolous, long term. Innovation is being defined by Google and Apple - lots of new features, rapid new products. Some broad architectural shift is tough to call innovation.