Sure, MySQL is also still free. OpenOffice remained free until Oracle dumped it on Apache's doorstep. Neither product was ever under threat of becoming legally unfree. The problem is that people don't trust Oracle anymore. The developer community doesn't want to touch anything from Oracle with a 10-foot pole even if it's licensed under GPL.
I haven't used enough Oracle products to judge whether this sentiment is justified. But regardless of whether it is justified, the fact that Oracle doesn't seem to be making any effort to clear up possible misunderstandings suggests that they don't give a crap about their reputation with non-"enterprise" developers.
> The developer community doesn't want to touch anything from Oracle
Which developer community are you talking about ?
Because in the JVM community we like Oracle quite a bit since they have been surprisingly great at supporting the platform over the last decade. Actions speak louder than words you know.
I haven't used enough Oracle products to judge whether this sentiment is justified. But regardless of whether it is justified, the fact that Oracle doesn't seem to be making any effort to clear up possible misunderstandings suggests that they don't give a crap about their reputation with non-"enterprise" developers.