First (as I recall) there was White Box Enterprise Linux. Then came CentOS. Now it seems it's Oracle's turn to get into the game. What game is that? Why, taking Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code, stripping out all of Red Hat's trademarks, recompiling and repackaging it as your own distribution.Introducing Oracle Unbreakable Linux. (Unbreakable Linux--I like the sound of that. Hope it can live up to this rather dramatic titular claim...)
Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery? Maybe this is just a bit over the top though? Don't misunderstand, it's all perfectly on the up & up. Nothing legally or ethically wrong with this approach--after all, the code is all covered under the GPL licensing. And the key here isn't even a new distro based on someone else's codebase. Who really cares anyway? Selling distros isn't where the money is in Linux anyway. It's the support contracts that count, and that is precisely the game Oracle wishes to join. This is a step right in that direction for Oracle I suppose but it will make the former "friends" direct competitors.
Interesting developments but not totally unexpected, and indeed probably good for the late adopters. The more warm & fuzzy corporations feel about commercial support, the more likely they will be to move forward with Linux integration. It ain't 1995 anymore...
PS You can download it from this link after registration.
Tags: Linux Oracle Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL CentOS White Box Enterprise Linux distro support
5 comments:
It's pretty broken out of the box. So much for "unbreakable"...
http://ultramookie.com/wayback/2006/10/26/uncompatible-linux/
It's pretty broken out of the box. So much for "unbreakable"...
I read the review you mentioned. Wow, I am glad I didn't waste the bandwidth downloading this thing (which was a decision based on the fact that they don't offer it on DVD, only multiple CDs--it's the little things in life you know? ;-)
Anyway, what is Oracle thinking? More reviews like the one you cited and that unbreakable ship is sunk before it even leaves the harbor...
Agreed, good review. Saved me a lot of time also. Thank goodness I didn't waste my bandwidth of that Oracle garbage.
Oracle released Enterprise Linux as a cost effective way OS to run the Oracle software stack under not as a desktop OS. I have installed Enterprise Linux and Oracle 10gR2 and its a fine server class OS.
See my comments on my blog at: http://www.theciocompanion.com
Oracle released Enterprise Linux as a cost effective way OS to run the Oracle software stack under not as a desktop OS. I have installed Enterprise Linux and Oracle 10gR2 and its a fine server class OS.
See my comments on my blog at: http://www.theciocompanion.com
Maybe we are a little confused then. I will have to go back through thier marketing materials, but it appeared to myself (and others) that Unbreakable would be fully RHEL compatible--when apparently it is not. Distros are a commodity of course, as you mentioned in your linked comments but perhaps they could do a little better at communicating their aims and intentions.
When I first saw "Unbreakable" my first thought is Enterprise level security, bugfixes, SELinux, the works. Your comments make sense though in the Oracle paradigm--a custom platform they control to run Orcale applications. Part of that control is the support aspect. Not only will it be eaiser to support if they provide their own custom platform but it produces yet another revenue stream in the process. A win for them either way.
However, it seems they could do a better job at indicating their intentions. The bottom line here is, if it is not RHEL compatible (a la CentOS) then they should not claim as much, IMO.
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