[Discuss] Oracle Linux, going after CentOs

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 07/24/2012 01:58 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> On 7/24/2012 1:16 PM, Mark Woodward wrote:
>> I don't think it is just that, no way. The target is RedHat all the way.
>> Like you said, CentOS customers are not buying support, period. The
>> objective is to keep people from getting RedHat in the first place.
>
> If so then Oracle is playing a dangerous game.  The more Oracle cuts
> into Red Hat's bottom line, the more Oracle hurts its own Linux business.
>
A few years ago both HP and IBM cut deals with both Red Hat and SuSE to
sell Linux pre-installed on servers, and sell support. The issue to a
corporate client is that they want a single point of service. For
instance, if they call HP on an issue, they don't want HP to tell them
to call Red Hat. So, in this model IBM and HP sold the hardware with the
distro installed, and a single support point. Both IBM and HP had
considerable internal Linux experts. But, in both of these cases, the
Linux installed was still a Red Hat or SuSE branded Linux. In this case,
I would agree with Richard.  Does Oracle want to become a big name in
the Linux server market or are they using this to support their database
business. I can't see why a RHEL, CentOS, or SLES customer would really
want to switch. Most of these clients are well versed in Linux and know
of Oracle's previous anti-OpenSource daliances. The key player is Red
Hat. How are they going to alter their strategy. A lot depends on
customer acceptance. It could be like KrispyKreme vs. Dunkin Donuts.
KrispyKreme came in with a vengeange with a lot of donut stores with
donuts being made while you watch. Dunkin made a public statement that
they are in a much different business. The only KrispyKreme in all of
New England today is at Mohecan Sun. Red Hat certainly needs to watch
closely, but not overreact. Since Oracle and Red Hat are in many of the
same shops, there is some danger. I certainly would prefer Oracle to
fail at this.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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