[Discuss] Oracle Linux, going after CentOs

[Richard Pieri]

Oracle killing Red Hat makes even less sense than Oracle buying Red Hat. 
  Seriously, what would Larry Ellison gain from it?  Nothing.  He 
already has a software stack.  He already has RHEL with the trademarks 
rasped away.  A strong Red Hat makes for a strong Oracle Linux. 
Weakening Red Hat means a weaker RHEL to molest with a rasp, and killing 
Red Hat means no RHEL at all.  I'm sure that Oracle would recovery from 
killing Red Hat but why bother?  Rolling out a complete enterprise 
distribution is expensive.  Rasps are cheap.

I remind you of something that Mark wrote earlier: that CentOS is the 
defacto free version of RHEL.  This makes Red Hat dependent on the 
CentOS project for getting the foot in the door.  What happens if Oracle 
Linux displaces CentOS as that freebie RHEL?

I figure this is what Ellison wants.  He's not out to kill Red Hat. 
He's out to make Oracle a necessity for Red Hat's continued operation.

-- 
Rich P.