News that ever-agreeable software giant Oracle will support JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel applications beyond its proposed 2013 deadline may have been welcomed by users, but it leaves Sneak a trifle concerned about the damage it could do to the sanity of chief cheerleader Larry Ellison.

Oracle's commitment to indefinitely support separate applications is bound to prompt shareholders to ask what happened to the original plan to cut costs by focusing development on one suite. Which, given the identity of Oracle's major shareholder, raises the worrying prospect of Ellison having to ask himself what the hell he was thinking.

Still, given that laughing-boy Larry happily put money into Salesforce.com and then almost immediately announced his intention to have Oracle crush the upstart, perhaps financially unwise schisms are a familiar part of the Ellison psyche.

And given Ellison's history of raking in cash, Sneak wouldn't bet against either half of his brain.

28 Apr 2006