Oracle Linux!?

[techieMoe]

How solid is the GPL? It surprises me that a deep-pocketed company like MS hasn't found a few loopholes in it. Maybe Oracle did? Or maybe Oracle's dumb. Or maybe I'm way off base. Or...

No, Oracle didn't find a loophole. The only way their license works is if they've added their own proprietary programs to their distribution and the restrictions placed are for those programs only. The thing that kills it is the "you may not remove..." clause, which basically says people can't take out the proprietary Oracle stuff and redistribute it. This is ironic, considering this is exactly what Oracle did when they ripped off Redhat.

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

The GPL states:

2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty . . .

This is against the Oracle license. I'm curious to see how the Free Software Foundation and the Oracle lawyers react to this.

[cousinlucky]

I am not vomiting yet, but there are tears welling in my eyes after I was Emailed today by the guy that got me to install Novell's Suse Linux. He has informed me that Microsoft and Novell are getting ready to announce some sort of Linux collaborations. Rats, rats, rats!!

[cousinlucky]

The Microsoft/Novell deal has eclipsed Oracle's invasion of Red Hat. Is this good for Red Hat?

[gtmtnbiker98]

Is it good for Linux in general?

[Col. Newman]

Just read where Oracle has officially entered into the Linux community by introducing another distro titled "Unbreakable Linux," or something similar. The way I understand it, it will be along the same lines as CentOS; however, Oracle will provide the patches and kernel updates. With Oracle providing R&D I can see the entire Linux community benefiting. Oracle's subscription will be $99 per year per machine with 1-2 CPU's. I just wonder how this will impact Red Hat, after all, everybody is taking their hard work and rebadging their product from underneath them.

Like I've said in the past, open source is wonderful but it is not a business model for which I would want to be involved from a corporate existence standpoint.

I'm all for Oracle possibly competing against Micro$oft in the desktop market. But Subcriptions? $99? thats ridiculous

[carlosponti]

Oracle isn't really competing in the desktop market. Oracle's only interest is taking on Red Hats Commercial Dominance. Both Red Hat and Oracle are doing business with corporate clients and government. the average home desktop client wont be affected by this at all. So far there is no Linux Distribution trying to directly compete with Windows.