Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Thu 26th Oct 2006 00:20 UTC, submitted by Anonymous
"No one saw this coming. People talked about Oracle making its own Linux, or buying a Linux company (Ubuntu?). But, the news that Oracle is erasing Red Hat's trademarks from Unbreakable Linux and supporting it for less than Red Hat is a bolt from the blue. Or, perhaps, I should say that Oracle is firing a shot at the heart of Red Hat, and commercial Linux? This really, really ticks me off." Apparently, Oracle announced that they will provide full enterprise support for Linux and so it competes with RH.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
No kidding.
I can get my Ford truck serviced at numerous facilities, not just Ford. I can buy an extended warranty for the truck that's usable in places besides a Ford dealership. When I bought an iBook, the store offered me their own extended warranty over AppleCare.
So, all Oracle is doing is taking Linux support to the next level. They're not going to bother with their own distro. Red Hat is a fine distro, and the market leader. Support Red Hat rather than inventing a new one.
Ellison made it clear last year that he had no intention of buying a Linux distro (like Red Hat). He basically said "Why should I buy them when they give it away for free?".
And he's right. Is expertise within Red Hat worth their market cap? Is the expertise available elsewhere, where Oracle can perhaps buy it "ala carte"? Because that's all Red Hat has, is expertise. The software is given away, and therefore not an asset.
So, contrived example, say Oracle simply offered core team members at Red Hat, the "brain trust" so to speak, positions at his company, and gave them a large signing bonus. If these team members aren't waiting to vest in Red Hat stock, or, simply, not already "well funded", a fat check from Oracle can be VERY tempting.
If Oracle could get them at the insane price of $1M each, and got 10 members. That's $10M total. A far cry from however many $B's Red Hat may be worth on the market. Hell, they just plonked $450Mish for JBoss.
But, fundamentally, that's Larry's point. He doesn't need Red Hat. He may need some key expertise, but since it's Linux we're talking about, Red Hat doesn't even have a lock on that. I read somewhere else that Oracle has got 3 kernel developers from Novell. Guaranteed they didn't cost Oracle billions of dollars.
Oracle gets the Linux for free, even Red Hats specific version of Linux. They just need some manpower to facilitate knowledge transder to spin up and train his already existing call support center and staff of technicians.
Far far cheaper than buying an existing mainstream distro.
No reason to be angry at anyone here, this is just the market at work.