Peacebringers

A few days ago, or maybe it was yesterday? I don’t recall… but I tried updating my server, only to find out the commands: rpm, rpmbuild, rpmdb and yum; would not work.  They reported “Illegal Operation” no matter what I tried.  Today, I go to to post, realizing I left MySQL off, and upon restarting the service, I found that “rpm -qa” works…  Yay. My system sporadically decided to fix itself, or something.  Either way, now I will have to scan my system for rootkits, security exploits, and everything else to cure my paranoia that someone got through.  I’m not security-minded & anal retentive, but I do not run my systems without taking precautions and closing most security prone areas of an OS.

Now comes the part everyone else in the “blog-o-sphere” is talking about… the purchase of Sun Microsystems by Oracle.  I won’t commit to writing prose, technical white papers and a dissertation on my fears for those things that Sun owns… but let’s just say: I’m worried.   I’m worried foremost, about MySQL.  With Oracle DB, what will Oracle do with a RDBMS that they consider far inferior to their flagship product?  Sun *just* purchased MySQL from MySQL AB, well… it feels like it.  I was just getting used to Sun doing decent with MySQL.

Then, there is VirtualBox and Java.  Oracle just made a mess in their pants… they have Java.  My lips are pursed in curiosity and hesitation… Just what will Oracle do with it?  My gut feeling is they won’t mess too harshly with a good thing.  Then there is VirtualBox, the virtual server system that Sun also acquired shortly after acquiring MySQL.   I use both MySQL & VirtualBox almost religiously… and now I’m contemplating wearing Depends, the adult diapers, just in case Oracle goes and does something stupid.

Like the rest of those on the Internet, I sit here in trepidation, wondering and waiting for Oracle’s first move.