I don't think that killing of an open source project is possible. I mean - if the source code is open, then somebody might (and definitely will - if the product is worth it) maintain it and release new modifications etc.
Yes, Oracle can reduce budget to such project to zero, and that is the time when talented people leave the company. The exactly same thing happened when they tampered with OpenOffice project - the majority of developers leaved, and forked LibreOffice - which is quite good(better than OO).
But I won't say that Oracle is doing some wrong thing - they can save the money - which they will put in some other commercial projects - which will make more money. And we(users) are anyway getting more choice (OO and LibreOffice instead of simply OO) to choose from. So, for me, its a win-win situation. Only bad thing out of this is - Oracle has lost some talented people, and Oracle can't use them now on their flagship products.
David Payne wrote:I strongly suspect that many of their (and other firm's) core support staff are just good "googlers".
Not always. Otherwise, why companies buy corporate support? Some problems are specific to user (client company) environment, and then it is necessary to get actual support.
Just my two cents.