[Info-vax] HP wins Oracle Itanium case

[Keith Parris]

On 8/2/2012 4:34 AM, Michael Kraemer wrote:
> I think it is more likely that the next battle will be over Oracle
> not accepting the judge's current ruling.

Oracle (and HP) have 15 days to comment on the preliminary judgment. 
Then a final judgment will be released.

> And rightfully so.
> While it is understandable that Oracle is obliged to maintain
> current products, I find it weird to try to "force" them
> to offer also future DB versions for a platform which is no longer
> viable.

Intel and HP certainly feel the platform is viable. Intel has an 
agreement with HP to develop Itanium until 2022, and HP has the option 
to renew at that point. Poulson appears to have the potential for 
providing a significant performance increase. And with the Kittson (and 
as court documents leaked, Kittson+) generations ahead, it sure looks 
viable from here.

Oracle continued development for PA-RISC and Alpha even _after_ the 
end-of-life announcements for those chips. It didn't pre-emptively cut 
development beforehand.

In the Mark Hurd settlement, Oracle and HP agreed in writing: "Oracle 
will continue to offer its product suite on HP platforms, and HP will 
continue to support Oracle products (including Oracle Enterprise Linux 
and Oracle VM) on its hardware in a manner consistent with that 
partnership as it existed prior to Oracle's hiring of Hurd."

Oracle supported its products on Itanium before it hired Hurd. So 
nothing is weird -- all the court is forcing Oracle to do is what they 
agreed in writing to do.