"Casualties? Java and MySQL for sure, and perhaps Sun's hardware business," says CyberTech Rambler; "Oracle can utilize Sun's Solaris and Java platforms....However the future of MySQL has not been mentioned and may not be so rosy," notes Steve Kennedy. The blogosphere is abuzz with news and views in the wake of Oracle's intended acquisition of Sun for $7.4BN announced this morning.

We bring you here a brief selection of what's being written around the Web about the deal by ordinary, insightful bloggers rather than the usual high-profile professional pundits:

"Looks like I´m working for Oracle soon... Well, better Red than Blue."
Joerg Moellenkamp, Senior Systems Engineer at Sun Microsystems in Hamburg

"Need a bit of time to digest this.  However, my initial reaction is that I like this deal  more than the previous IBM deal."
Simon Brocklehurst, high tech entrepreneur

"This acquisition means that MySQL is now part of Oracle which also has its own Oracle DB."
Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO of WATMedia

"Oracle is now the enterprise equivalent of Apple: a single vendor with a start-to-finish closed loop from the hardware to the OS to the applications."
Brent Ozar, SQL Server DBA expert for Quest Software

"It’s good to see Oracle moving into open source though. Oracle hasn’t been that embracing to the open source community. Perhaps the acquisition would change things."
KahWee, Student, Singapore Institute of Management

"Snorkel will be a bloody mess! Oracle has no systems experience."
Miko Matsumura Deputy CTO, Software AG

"I’d thought about Oracle buying Sun. But, then I thought, 'Larry Ellison isn’t that dumb.' Well, I was wrong. Ellison is that dumb. Oracle is buying Sun in what may be the most moronic technology acquisition of the 21st century."
Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols, Vaughan-Nichols & Associates

"What does this mean for the Linux distributions that MySQL widely supports? Does it mean more software from the Oracle stack will be open source and distributed easily?"
Colin Charles, Open Source Software Hacker

"While Oracle has displayed an ability to participate in and benefit from open source software, I think its expectations and aspirations for open source software are limited. You can’t blame a company making billions for not getting to excited about millions."
Jay Lyman, 'CAOS Theory' Blog

"Java will, of course, survive the sale – it’s too firmly entrenched in the industry at this point for anything else to be a possibility. Oracle itself has a vested interest in seeing Java continue to blossom."
'JavaGod' Blog

"The only two elements of Sun that were on Ellison's mind this morning were Java and the Solaris operating system. "
Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

• Oracle-Sun: Jonathan Schwartz Writes His Toughest Ever Email
• Oracle Buys Sun
• Oracle Snaps Up Sun, Gains Control of Java
• It's the End of Sun, Only Oracle Survives: Charles Fitzgerald
• Oracle-Sun: $7.4BN Deal Will Close Already This Summer