[Discuss] Oracle Linux, going after CentOs

[Jerry Feldman]

On 07/25/2012 06:44 AM, Mark Woodward wrote:
> On 07/24/2012 10:01 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
>> 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.
>
> I disagree. Larry Ellison is both crazy and without any personal
> morals. Its kind of obvious what he's planning when you think about
> it. Suffocate RedHat, leach off it while you can, when it falters the
> stock price falls, when the price is right, buy it. It is a long term
> strategy that may take a few years. At that point, you know Oracle
> Linux will then no longer be free. Sadly, at that point in time,
> CentOS my have been replace by the free Oracle Linux.
>
> Its a brilliant move and it may work. I hope not, but it may.
> __
Basically, the real target is the data center. Oracle is already in
there with their DB, but they can leverage that with their Linux distro.
But they have a hard sell.

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