Note: This was originally published as a LinkedIn post on December 20, 2025. There were many reasons why I left Oracle shortly after it acquired Sun, but first among them: I could not stomach the disdain that Oracle had for its own customers. Sun — for all of its (many!) other faults — loved its customers. I bring this up because I was recently contacted by a former Sun colleague, who had some technical questions about Oxide. His career had taken him to VMware and now to Broadcom, where he has a senior engineering management position. After answering the questions, I asked him how things were going at Broadcom. He left Sun before the Oracle transition, but I could see potential cultural similarities in the Broadcom acquisition of VMware — and I imagine it could be jarring.