Oracle supports RedHat - Not what you think
Posted by Felix Enescu on October 31st, 2006
Oracle press release on Oct. 25, 2006:
Today Oracle announced that it would provide the same enterprise class support for Linux as it provides for its database, middleware and applications products. Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes. […] Oracle is offering its Unbreakable Linux program for substantially less than Red Hat currently charges for its best support
I saw this announcement on two blogs: BusinessWeek Online — Tech Beat and Nicholas Carr’s Rough Type.
It is very interesting to compare first the titles: “Oracle Drops the Bomb on Red Hat” versus “Larry Ellison and the business of social production” and then the comments.
While Steve Hamm is a journalist from title to the last line:
It’s a ruthless and brilliant act of capitalism.
Nicholas Carr plays the analyst card:
It illuminates a much broader and deeper tension in the digital world, a fault line that runs not only through the software industry but through every industry whose products or services exist, or can exist, as software.
Nicholas Carr analyze this from a product industry perspective. Readers of “The Magic Cauldron” of Eric S. Raymond will recognize the mistake: most of the open source related business models are about services not products.
It is not about providing a better mousetrap; it is about learning people how to catch mice.
If RedHat sees it’s core business as providing services then it stand a chance. If not, not!
What do you think? Is RedHat doomed? Is Oracle move an attack to open source philosophy?
Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Only time will tell us if Oracle Unbreakable Linux (OUL) is a success or not. My thought is that they will fail. Whatever is open-source you have to discuss about community too, not only business. Red Hat have Fedora (+ CentOS), what would be free, community version of OUL?
Then, Oracle sees only Red Hat, but there are other big players in Linux world. What about Novell Suse Enterprise Linux, half the price of OUL?
There are other issues here, I think, so simply said, I don’t think this would be e big break, just a small foot in open-source world, trying to monetize it. We’ll see.
November 1st, 2006 at 11:36 am
It’s a dangerous approach to say things like „Red Hat has Fedora” or even Linus have Linux. GPL ensure that if I don’t like what RedHat, or Oracle, or even Linus is doing I can take that piece of software and do whatever I want with it.
PS: Let’s avoid the discussion on “reward society”, aversion to fork, etc. ESR put it much better (http://catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/homesteading/)
November 1st, 2006 at 4:32 pm
In my view it’s not dangerous at all to say “Red Hat has Fedora”. Of course, “has” != “own” , but (main) “sponsor” (”Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat“) or even “Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc.”. As I said, I see this as “Red Hat has Fedora” (+ CentOS, another community RedHat based Linux).
On the other hand, if you brought this into discussion, is also correct to say “Linus have copyrighted Linux”. Of course, he doesn’t “own” Linux entirely, but has one most important part of it: its name (besides other things, like control over kernel).
Back to OUL, I even didn’t find its licence (didn’t look hard) at Oracle.com. My question is: how successful are commercial-only Linux distros, if any? (I don’t know such distros, but I’m not an Linux expert) I think their use are very limited, and so will happen with Oracle, too, in my opinion.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I am afraid that in corporate for critical applications only distros with commercial service will do. Commercial as in big boys
In my case I use RedHat for company ERP (Oracle e-Business Suite). It is posible to switch OUL at least for this application.