I'm wary of the loss of openoffice and free jre and jdk software I rely on.

Unless EU imposes a strict rule, we may see an end to the free MySQL.

I hadn't thought about it before, but the EU has an excellent point. Sun has given quite a bit back to the open source community, I'm not sure what intentions Oracle has.

Wow, the EU sure likes to do some good ol' probing, don't they. Still, I would hate to see this go through if it means the end of free OOffice and mysql.

I actually like it. Oracle does offer some expensive software but don't forget that they also offer the free, open-source Berkley database engine. Both companies have some great resources and I would love to see how Oracle could optimize the Sun offerings.

Members of the EU would probe their own mothers if they thought it would net them a quick dime.

when did the EU turn into world police?

getting probed is never fun : (

Im so sick of the EU and then sticking there nose in American company business. They are funding the EUs failing economy with US dollars from our companies. I say all our companies to pull out of the EU and laugh as it collapses in on itself.

I think the best option is to stop doing business in the EU. Too much regulation and countries trying to take all your money.

Really, why do any foreign companies do business in the EU? Let the EU function without American products, see how quickly they fall from being #2 on the global economy scale.

Some European software is good, I use both Opera and Nero Burning ROM. I liked Serious Sam (though Croatia has yet to be allowed into the EU). At the same time, I don't know of any European OSs or Database programs, so I don't know what solution the EU proposes. You can't sue for damages when you have nothing to be damaged, and the EU shouldn't be able to regulate American companies when they don't even have any of their own in competition.

I agree with Falchard, however I also believe that the EU is for once correct. I thought the deal was bad for consumers, corporations that use suns systems, and open source from the start. Oracle is doing only to get rid of any competition from MySQL, they even said that they were buying the company to control the software and were hoping to sell off the hardware ASAP

I usually think the EU is out to against every American corporation out there, for example when they said Microsoft can't ship IE with Windows. BUT the EU is right this time, there isn't that many big named companies that make database software, well good database software anyways. So this would be a controlling database monopoly over competitors.

aside joke: For everyone in EU, this is why you'll never see price cuts for Xbox, because the EU would then say you can't ship the system with Xbox Live since other consoles aren't up to par yet.

hellwig: what are you smoking? The EU is much healthier economically that the US is right now, we aren't exactly an island unto ourselves, unless you consider China and Mexico to be part of the island. Atleast they have the balls to regulate business, unlike the US congress, who just accept bribes... I mean "campaign contributions" in exchange for NOT regulating business. Our congress won't reign in the crooked, price gouging health insurance companies, even though it's creating a humanitarian crisis. Regulating big business is a GOOD thing, remember that...

If the EU really wants a company to harass they should turn their attention toward Cisco Systems.

When EU announces a probe, it pretty much means that they're guilty and should be looking at a fine anywhere from $1billion to infinity.

In other words, EU is seizing every cash cow available.

The $2billion Microsoft bailout helps a lot, believe me.

Of course this is a concern. There's a risk that Sun Microsystems' open source initiatives would go down the drain.

I rely on a lot of Sun's open source products to get stuff done (MySQL, OpenOffice.org, Java and sometimes play around with Solaris).

If Oracle is to shut these projects down, then we might as well be f**k'd.

Funny you should say this in this thread since MySql is a European (Swedish) program. "MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems,[4] which holds the copyright to most of the codebase." Wikipedia.

And while we are at it, how about the Linux kernel, that is actually a European (Finnish) OS kernel.

Since America got probed by Internal Affairs.

And for all of you who are concerned about the cash cow issue, take a look at your own country and the way it's screwing YOU out of YOUR tax money and then worry about a "poor" company that's doing shady business. But I guess this is what blind patriotism is all about. ... sheep

Funny that EU has to come over to you guys and check this deal. This is something that you should have done it, not EU. In some strange way... the EU is babysitting the US deals. If everything is in order then nothing bad will come from this check, that is what checking does, makes sure everything is in order! what, don't tell me you are afraid of discipline and order!?
Anyway the intention is noble, the problem here would be how is conducted. Any good thing can do bad things in the wrong hands. So i think a good collaboration should solve the issue.
Xaake is right, the EU likes open source software and milking the big cows if the rules are bent or broken.

As long as these products (and their source code) have been released under a public license, I don't think that they can pull it back and change the terms on already released SW.
Who will continue developing it is another question...

Sorry to disapoint you but US is sticking there nose to other country business for decades, they are on top of everything, but thats not true anymore. 70% of world technology resources are now developed outside of US with EU, china, japan and taiwan being biggest.

Ofcourse US companies can do what ever they allowed to do in US, but they have to comply with any country laws or restrictions they want do business with. Its not really fun when outside US based companies have to comply with some "stupid" rules if want enter US market.

Also US patent system is in biggest mess allowing everyone patent about anything they want and then sue others using it, even if its stupid things used on daily basis, that should never be allowed to be patented in 1st place.

As for EU wanting inspect oracle+sun deal, anyone could expect that as sun is one of biggest contributors in opensource comunity and it aquisition by oracle can change that.

Xaake, SpadeM and Xrodney: Excellent points from all of you, unfortunately, Americans are isolated from the rest of the world by 2 oceans, and brainwashed from a young age by all of the nationalist propaganda in our news and textbooks. Most apparently think that we're the only country with such strong nationalist sentiment.

In European schools, they teach that Americans helped in WWII, but that it was pretty much won by the Russians, America just helped to speed up the victory. In American schools, they all but suggest that we won the war by ourselves.