Observers Mull Impact Of Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux 2.0

JogjaTechno - Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux 2.0 likely won’t fragment the Linux distribution business out of the gate, but the long-term impact on Red Hat, Novell and the operating system market remains unclear, industry observers say.

Oracle on Wednesday unveiled plans to provide full enterprise support for a derivative of Red Hat Linux. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based software giant also said it would release internally developed bug fixes and libraries to optimize Linux performance on its database and entire application suite.

Oracle’s hybrid Linux offering, which combines full technical support and the development of Linux code, constitutes the company’s first step into the Linux distribution business, according to observers. The tighter coupling of applications with the open-source operating system also could further commoditize the OS and accelerate the uptake of OS appliances, they said.

Oracle said it will strip out of the code any trademarked reference to Red Hat, develop its own private fixes and add-ons for customers, and release the derivative code to the market. That plan makes Oracle a bona fide rival to Red Hat, Novell and Microsoft — at least on paper, according to Al Gillen, an OS software analyst at research firm IDC.

“This does put Oracle into the Linux distribution business,” Gillen said. “It will likely have a small impact on the Linux market over the first 12 months, since the most likely customers up front will be existing Oracle customers using Oracle database software on Linux or Oracle application software on Linux.”

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// October 31st, 2006