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Unfortunately the world doesn't run off technical ability though. Oracle is a mammoth because it's proficient at extracting value and profit from its businesses. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you in principle, but it's the equivalent of someone destroying artwork and making a gain from it and wondering how they get away with it when the world doesn't care about art, they care about money.

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IIRC, Oracle got a huge boost from US government as it was the semi-official database engine developed (for the Navy?) with taxpayer funds, then deployed (again with taxpayer funds). I'm not complaining, the US probably needed a better DB engine, but it was partly luck, partly backroom agreements that launched and supported Oracle for years. That said, maybe I got my facts badly mixed up.

CIA. (Source: Larry Ellison, as quoted in Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cia-made-larry-ellison-a-...)

Which is why the villain in Charlie Stross's _The Jennifer Morgue_ is "Ellis Billington".

I think it's SQLite that had Navy origins.

You are probably right. I recall reading that Oracle development was funded by a DARPA-style mechanism, but I may have confused it with something. As MrMorden says in another comment it was likely the CIA who funded the development.

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