Oracle is parading 26 customers for its Linux support offering in front of the world.

The list features some notable names such as BNP Paribas and Yahoo, and should silence the skeptics who speculated that customers would never fall for the company's support offering.

As a quick refresh: Oracle in October unveiled a support offering for Red Hat's Enterprise Linux distribution. Instead of paying Red Hat for support and updates, users can now pay Oracle, which charges less for the same services. The announcement wiped out several hundred millions off Red Hat's market capitalization.

29 Mar 2007

The question that begs answering however remains: will this catch on with the broader public? Oracle no doubt has showered these early customers with gifts and rebates to make them sign up. But would they still be interested in Oracle Linux support without those?

It takes hundreds if not thousands of Linux customers to answer that question.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison last October, talking up Red Hat killer