Re: Oracle doesn't permit downloading even critical patches without contract? WTF!

>
> WTF is going on with Oracle? I have logged into SunSolve (my login still
> works) and found that I cannot even download the critical patch update
> packages without a service contract (which of course I don't have).

This has been the case for at least half a year, if not more.

> How is that meant to engender long-term grass-roots support for the Sun
> hardware base if end-users such as ourselves with legacy hardware can't
> get even the most important of patches....

Simple: it's not meant to engender anything (apart from generating cash
for ORCL).

All this has been and still is being discussed on blogs, mailinglists and
forums back- and forth many, many times.

While I'd love to be able to download and install the patches, too, I can
also see that somebody, somewhere has to pay for the salaries of the
people actually coding Solaris and the patches.
Back in the days, this was probably paid for by huge markups on
Starfire-type systems and ultra-expensive support contracts - a situation
that obviously no longer exists today.

Oracle has decided that though "evangelizing" users who download, install
and test the system (on SUN-hardware or not) are nice and give a "feeling"
of grass-root support", it doesn't actually contribute positively to the
bottom line in any positive way.

You can still download Solaris DVDs for free and use them indefinitely
(provided it's for personal or evaluation use only), though.
So I don't think we can actually complain, IMO.

Can you download a copy of Windows "for evaluation purposes" and also get
patches regularly?



Rainer