Red Hat executive and Jboss founder Marc Fleury is taking a closer look at Oracle's plans to launch an Oracle Linux version, and argues that it will be an uphill battle either way.

Oracle's Larry Ellison floated the idea in an interview with the Financial Times in April.

"I would like to have a complete stack," he said. "We are missing an operating system. You could argue that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at distributing and supporting Linux."

30 Aug 2006

The company later adjusted its rhetoric to argue that it could start offering support for the Red Hat Linux distribution.

Fleury quickly points out that the latter doesn't make any sense. Rather than buying a software box, enterprises purchase a Red Hat subscription that provides them access to the software, updates and support.

Given that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available under the GPL license, Oracle could compile the code and sell it as Oracle Linux. But that still doesn't take care of the updates. And third party applications won't be certified for Oracle Linux, even if the code is 99.999 percent identical.

The problems are largely the same if Oracle would choose to build an Oracle Linux from the ground up, Fleury argued: the suite would suffer from limited third party certification and a lack of large engineering investments.

Fleury isn't only proven wrong by the rise of Ubuntu as a major Linux distribution, he also fails to address the reasons for Oralce to create its own Linux.

Controlling the full stack from operating system to end user application would allow Oracle to create a tightly integrated collection of applications that is also referred to as a software appliance.

Essentially it's the difference bewteen creating a home stereo set by buying separate components or getting one of those nifty integrated sets: it has fewer buttons and fewer needless features and cables. The majority of the users are perfectly happy with an appliance.

Oracle contender Ingres unveiled such a database appliance at Linuxworld earlier this month. Getting rid of all the unused Linux features allowed the company to strip down Linux to 20-30 per cent of its original size.

Ingres is relying on rPath/ to build its appliance. Oracle could ask Red Hat to create such an appliance, as Fleury suggests, but why bother? Oracle is big enough to create one itself and ensure the optimal level of integration.

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