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There's a new bad guy in town. Just when you thought that Microsoft and SCO were the only gangsters in the software world, a new player has been muscling in on their territory -- or so you'd think from reading all the hype on the Internet. Reports tend to be confused and not many people have bothered to find out the truth: so that's what I've gone out and done.
Oracle, who have been supporting their commercial database product -- um, Oracle -- on Linux since 1998, have now embraced Linux a little harder and are now going to offer operating system (OS) support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That is, regardless of whether you're running Oracle on that machine or not. Furthermore, they promise to support versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux long after Red Hat themselves have ceased support, even though Red Hat claim to offer support for all their software for up to seven years.
The name of this project is "Unbreakable Linux" and it is not so much a separate distribution as the name given to the support program. It seems that this support program will start with RHEL 3 and it will be implemented by customers downloading a new 'up2date' program which will connect them to Oracle's update servers. A lot of confusion comes from people thinking that Oracle will be rebranding RHEL and releasing it as Unbreakable Linux, but a side effect of this support program is that they will be creating a separate distribution -- several in fact -- because they will be doing so many code updates. It will inevitably get messy, but Oracle's aim is to maintain compatibility with Red Hat Linux. Every new version that Red Hat release will be synchronised with Oracle's code base. Every change they make on their own, however, will take them farther away from Red Hat's original code making more work for their integration long term.
Of course, Oracle have already been fiddling with Linux for years and they have already made several major contributions including the Oracle Cluster File System which is a part of the Linux kernel as of version 2.6.16, so they already have a team of developers dedicated to Linux work.
To rub salt in Red Hat's wound, until 31st of January 2007, Oracle are going to be offering their support program at a 50% discount for new customers, and completely free for existing customers.
Those who choose to use Oracle's Unbreakable Linux support program will connect to Oracle's update servers instead of Red Hat's. This will probably mean that initially most of the patches will be all Red Hat code, but as support is dropped by Red Hat and Oracle take up the mantle, the products will fork quite definitively. Red Hat is keen to point out that these forks will create an operating system that is incompatible with certified hardware and software. What that means in reality is probably nothing more than scare tactics for IT decision makers who like buzzwords. If you've got paid support, then maintaining compatibility with another vendor's lists is fairly redundant -- even if they were the ones who originally built the distribution.
With enough time and effort, it's a very realistic possibility that Oracle will bundle an offering that consists of an operating system, a database, and the tools required for a complete "Business Management" package.
First and foremost, Oracle's foray into Linux support means that Red Hat will lose business. That's Red Hat's main gripe -- understandably. Oracle are offering a "Value Add" service that is in direct competition with Red Hat's core business. While Red Hat do make a Linux distribution, their main bread and butter is in the support contracts they have with customers. The money from these contracts has also allowed them to build a live update system, which is actually better than other vendors' like Sun Microsystems, as part of their overall solution.
Oracle are undercutting Red Hat with what some would call competitive pricing, and what others would call aggressive pricing. Red Hat will either lose customers to Oracle and risk losing more by keeping their current pricing structure, or they will have to lower their prices to match Oracle's. Doing the latter will mean an instant drop in income, even if they keep all their customers. Naturally, however, some who may already be Oracle customers could take advantage of the next few months of free support. With a matched price drop, Red Hat will really only eliminate incentive for those who are not already Oracle customers.
Red Hat are playing the catch-up game and are in full defensive mode as is clear by the large banners on their front page. But they are feeling the pressure from all sides. Just after Oracle's announcement, Red Hat shares fell 16%, but that was following a record plunge last month after they released their second quarter filing. So the fault isn't all Oracle's.
Oracle's move has the honour of being a potential double-edged sword. While it keeps their investors happy, it raises the ire of the Linux community at large. Sure Linux is about freedom, and Red Hat's distribution is open source as is every other distribution, but the biggest thing that has the community crying foul is the database giant's audacity.
With the share prices being so low, Red Hat are exposed to the possibility of a buy-out, and Oracle certainly aren't new to the idea of acquisitions, nor are they averse to the idea of hostile takeovers as their nearly $11bn 18-month acquisition of PeopleSoft will attest to. As Oracle state on their PeopleSoft support page , "We plan to accelerate innovation and offer customers a superior solution at a lower price." Sound familiar?
Other good indicators that this is Oracle's ultimate plan are their joining the Free Standards Group (FSG) as a Platinum member, and their work with Intel to optimise Oracle and Linux code. Compound that with them now being in direct competition with Red Hat and there are just too many coincidences. Everything seems to be pointing toward an aquisition.
How long before they leverage this and create complete Appliances? Imagine a complete box that only exists to run Linux and Oracle. A single appliance that Oracle drop into your server room, and they look after in its entirety. Think of Cobalt and their Qubes (appliance web servers) and their CacheRaqs (appliance cache servers). They were pretty promptly bought out by Sun, but the simplicity of their appliances made them popular not just in the enterprise and small businesses, but among hosting providers too.
In the long run, if taking over Red Hat is their goal, it will help the Linux community. Oracle are the third largest software company in the world according to their standard (not customised) software revenue and IBM is the second largest. With both of these software giants supporting Linux in the enterprise, more and more large corporations around the world will feel safer making the move from proprietary operating systems and hardware. In fact, if anyone should be getting upset in this game it should be companies like Sun Microsystems, as Oracle will make people feel safer using commodity hardware for large scale applications. While that may not be a direct aim, it will happen as companies will be able to build redundant white-box systems for less than the cost of a large scale enterprise server from a proprietary vendor. Just look at Google for the perfect example of commodity hardware utilised in a large scale application.
The one thing that is most important to any company is support. Oracle are doing their bit by raising Linux up a few notches in the eyes of IT decision makers.
This can only be a good thing, and this is only the beginning of something I am anticipating will be a long and fruitful relationship. The battle leading up to that is going to be bitter and messy though. I'm sitting in the front row waving around my big foam pointy-fingered hand, just waiting for the action.
Comments about this article
Admin
writen by: maddnessaxon on 2006-11-08 19:14:59
It pleases the court to have the jesters fight. In my eyes, the real heros of all this is the linux community itself, who has done all the work. Kudos to all of us!
RE: Admin written by maddnessaxon:
Umm...
writen by: Anonymous on 2008-07-07 12:58:11
Get real. All Oracle is doing is making an RH-based distro.
<BR><BR>
What did Oracel do that, for example, Mandriva didn't do that was so bad?
<BR><BR>
Distributions fork all the time. Where's the wrong?
RE: Umm... written by Anonymous:
Comment title: * please do not put your response text here
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