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Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

linux.oracle.com

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Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#41

Post by fffggg »

cagenut wrote: post #12

I've run 200+ server environments on centos4, a 40+ server cluster on centos5, and now run a 50+ server cluster on rhel6. I'm pretty much dead on their target audience here. This seems almost mean. Its a billion dollar company calling out a volunteer group of a couple of guys for being slower than them. Part of the reason I switched to rhel was exactly this graph, I didn't have a lot of faith in centos as a going con…

I've dealt with both RHEL and OEL support contracts over long periods of time, in large scale environments (a few orders of magnitude larger than your example). OEL was free as we had other Oracle licensing in place and the thought was "Why not switch and save money?"

We eventually switched back to RHEL. It's well worth the money for any serious player. The "support" from OEL seemed fairly amateurish -- for example broken hotfix packages that appeared to be one-off builds.

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#42

Post by [deleted] »

wdaher wrote: post #16
cagenut wrote: post #12

I've run 200+ server environments on centos4, a 40+ server cluster on centos5, and now run a 50+ server cluster on rhel6. I'm pretty much dead on their target audience here. This seems almost mean. Its a billion dollar company calling out a volunteer group of a couple of guys for being slower than them. Part of the reason I switched to rhel was exactly this graph, I didn't have a lot of faith in centos as a going con…

(Disclaimer: I had a hand in a lot of this) That's not quite the intent. Look, here's the deal: I know we all like to think that corporations are evil and the presence of corporate interests actually messes stuff up. But this really is one case where you want the oomph of bilion-dollar company making sure that you get your security updates in time. No one else is providing that. Oracle happens to be doing so, and we'…

[deleted]

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#43

Post by buster »

What a bullshit comparison.

They mean to replace RHEL (paid support) but try to win over CentOS customers (who surely won't pay for support, if they would want to, they would use RHEL and thus would have even faster security patches then Oracle Linux).

Stay away.. as far as possible.. thanks.

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#44

Post by andrewcooke »

davidw wrote: post #34
nodata wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know we all like to think that corporations are evil and the presence of corporate interests actually messes stuff up. But Oracle actually is evil . > But this really is one case where you want the oomph of bilion-dollar company making sure that you get your security updates in time. Don't be naive, Oracle wouldn't be doing this if they didn't see a substantial business advantage. > No one else is providing that.…

It's quite possible, that, being a huge company, they do a lot of bad crap (they are not high on my list), but there are some good people there trying to do good things.

so when centos is dead and buried and oracle turns round and shafts us we should say "well, there were some good people there...."?

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#45

Post by facorreia »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #32
jasonlingx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still no good answer... why is Oracle doing this? I don't see how this story doesn't end with a whole bunch of people having to convert back to CentOS when someone at Oracle questions the value in offering this distribution for free.

It's obvious why Oracle is doing this. It's the same reason Red Hat does Fedora. It doesn't cost anything and eventually, you might reach a size or a problem where you need support. If you do, and you are running the free version of a company's Linux, that is the company that you will inevitably turn to (with your cash) for support.

Not to mention Red Hat is their competition in the Java space. Capturing people from Red Hat's ecosystem and moving them towards Oracle's is a pretty aggressive move. It's war on Red Hat. And also on Microsoft, which is using CentOS as a weapon against Red Hat on its Azure platform.

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#46

Post by dkroy »

wdaher wrote: post #16
cagenut wrote: post #12

I've run 200+ server environments on centos4, a 40+ server cluster on centos5, and now run a 50+ server cluster on rhel6. I'm pretty much dead on their target audience here. This seems almost mean. Its a billion dollar company calling out a volunteer group of a couple of guys for being slower than them. Part of the reason I switched to rhel was exactly this graph, I didn't have a lot of faith in centos as a going con…

(Disclaimer: I had a hand in a lot of this) That's not quite the intent. Look, here's the deal: I know we all like to think that corporations are evil and the presence of corporate interests actually messes stuff up. But this really is one case where you want the oomph of bilion-dollar company making sure that you get your security updates in time. No one else is providing that. Oracle happens to be doing so, and we'…

This is a really smart move. I started typing a huge write up why, but there are too many reasons why this free product/paid support model are good for both Oracle and their future clients.

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#47

Post by SoftwareMaven »

mapleoin wrote: post #3

Why are you doing this? This is not some gimmick to get you running Oracle Linux so that you buy support from us. If you're perfectly happy running without a support contract, so are we. We're delighted that you're running Oracle Linux instead of something else. At the end of the day, we're proud of the work we put into Oracle Linux. We think we have the most compelling Linux offering out there, and we want more peop…

I think it's more like "you are meaningless to us unless you want to buy a support contract". They do the exact same thing with MySQL. Download it and use it, but don't bug us unless you have cash in your hand.

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#48

Post by nembleton »

pgeorgi wrote: post #13
TallGuyShort wrote: post #9

If they think they have the most compelling Linux offering out there, why go to all the trouble of explaining how close you are to Red Hat?

Because RHEL compatibility is an important selling point, at least in the US Linux market.

You got a very good point here. Look like the big names, it's good for image. Especially when you have a terrible image like oracle starts to have. ( or did it have it since a few years already? )

Re: Oracle launches "a better alternative to CentOS"

#50

Post by jasonlingx »

jasonlingx wrote: post #23
wdaher wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Disclaimer: I had a hand in a lot of this) That's not quite the intent. Look, here's the deal: I know we all like to think that corporations are evil and the presence of corporate interests actually messes stuff up. But this really is one case where you want the oomph of bilion-dollar company making sure that you get your security updates in time. No one else is providing that. Oracle happens to be doing so, and we'…

Still no good answer... why is Oracle doing this? I don't see how this story doesn't end with a whole bunch of people having to convert back to CentOS when someone at Oracle questions the value in offering this distribution for free.

I could see one good thing that could come out of this - Redhat offering their distribution for free.
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