For as bad as Microsoft was/is, imagine if Oracle filled that role.

For whatever it worths, oracle has been spectacularly and surprisingly good at shepherding Java since the takeover, they held onto almost the whole core team from Sun (which is not a common thing with takeovers) and the platform is advancing faster then ever (and not in a haphazard way).

Mercifully, I don't have to worry about Larry Ellison every day of the week. He's not a 'oh god what has he done now' sort.

The good thing about Larry is as shitty as his bag of tricks is, it doesn't change much. What people hated about Microsoft is that they innovated on fucking other companies over and putting them out of business.

There would not have been 'a different Microsoft'. It was Gates and Ballmer and friends that did that. Paul Allen got sick and then split with Microsoft to do pretty much completely different things for the rest of his life. Not that people have good things to say in Seattle about his behavior as landlord.