Oracle and RedHat

[Ed Wilts]

On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 07:25:28PM -0800, Ravi Verma wrote:
> Dear Friends:
> 
> I had posted a message "ranting" about Oracle's shortcommings on Red Hat
> Linux. I still have a couple of questions.
> 
> 1. Is it appropriate for vendors like Oracle to certify their product for
> distribution from one particular Linux distributor?

Yes.  Oracle supports not only the database, but also the kernel - you
have Oracle support, feel free (and I mean "free as in beer") to ask
Oracle for Linux support.

> This gives the impression that there is Linux and then there is RedHat
> Linux as opposed to being a mere distribution of it. I abhor the idea of
> forking. We have already paid a heavy price as a result of forking of
> Unix.

Every distributor except Slackware has forked the kernel.  All make
choices as to which libraries and which specific versions of each
package to distribute.

> 2. Oracle's marketing claims that RedHat has certain code as part of RHEL
> which is not public yet. 

Mostly false.  There's a small part that's not open source (Java I
think) but most of it certainly is.

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program