We think two pieces of this comment – the references to billions/millions and the acknowledgement that Sun’s assets are disruptive – bear further examination.

Black Duck took a look at the macroeconomic impact of open source software ( http://www.blackducksoftware.com/development-cost-of-open-source ) and we think the real numbers are higher – in the billions, if you look at development costs. While Sun doesn’t account for all those dollars the point is that open source is a huge resource for developers, and we believe Oracle is betting on the right horse by acquiring Sun and backing open source. Also those millions of users grow every day as open source becomes more widely adopted in the enterprise. This is where the disruptive point comes in. Open source is disruptive because it lets enterprises do more, faster, through integration of open source with other code. Re-use of open source not only shaves costs, it encourages innovation, which can lead to the development of more disruptive technology.

We don’t think Oracle has bought open source by acquiring Sun, but we do think that this deal points to the long-term value of open source to large enterprises. We hope this deal signals Oracle’s intent to increase its participation in the open source community, and demonstrates that its expectations for open source are unlimited.