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

On Fri, 1 Oct 2010 10:16:09 +0200, [email protected] wrote:
>>
>> 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.
> 
      I thought they changed the rules so you can only legally use them
for a few months or so. I hope I am wrong!

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