[Info-vax] HP wins Oracle Itanium case

[Keith Parris]

On 8/2/2012 11:13 AM, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> How can we tell if anything has changed?  Even before all of this,
> Oracle rebadged 8.0 to 7.2 since no-one wanted a .0 release.  After the
> Hurd controversy, Rdb said "OK, no new version, but there will be
> 7.3.a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i for as long as there is demand".

But regardless of how many sub-versions were produced, flying under the 
radar with major new features disguised as bug fixes, technically 
Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy 
(http://www.oracle.com/us/support/lifetime-support/index.html) says 
active development for a version will only occur for 5 years (Premier 
Support) plus 3 years (Extended Support) after its release, so that 
would have ended Rdb Engineering work in about 2019, 8 years after its 
2011 release of the last version.

The judgment, if followed, would allow release of subsequent versions, 
resetting the 8-year Engineering clock with each release.