While eyes were drawn to Novell as a potential acquisition target for Oracle, a far less expensive Linux distribution
was also mentioned as a better fit for the database giant-turned-open-source advocate. The distro was Ubuntu, the most popular Linux flavor, according to the user community site DistroWatch.com. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chairman and CEO, recently made some public comments about wanting his own version of Linux for Oracle. Snapping up Ubuntu would not only save Ellison and Oracle a considerable amount of money, it would also eliminate some of the headaches associated with trying to integrate a company like Novell.
Oracle and Linux – How About Ubuntu?
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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On the one hand, I am thrilled that a linux distro such as Ubuntu could be considered enterprise class material. But at the same time, what of the community? I think that’s what made Ubuntu such a good OS. The support, the community and the people behind the scenes… just a wonderful mixture that makes this OS that much better.
Best thing to do now is grab a chair and some popcorn and watch what develops…
“Best thing to do now is grab a chair and some popcorn and watch what develops…”
Steve Ballmer: “Just the chair for me, thanks…”
I not solely about cost. It’s about fit. I’m not saying Ubuntu wouldn’t be a better fit. The question is, is it? And why?
keep in mind what else Novel offers that Ubuntu doesn’t. And yes, they do have a lot to offer.
“Ubuntu, the most popular Linux flavor, according to the user community site DistroWatch.com” – I’m afraid you are misinterpreting Distrowatch’s rankings – they are ‘page hits” which tell how many people have looked at the site, not how many use it- the real test of popularity.After having checked out Ubuntu myself, I am very suspect of those Ubuntu page hits on Distrowatch.
I think distrowatch hits are mainly good for determining the distro of the month in terms of hobbiest, home user as well as the curious first timers, popularity, or to put it less nicely, the currently most hyped distro. In that case think it’s fair to put Ubuntu around the top for the moment. Nothing wrong with that really.
In terms of enterprise usage (where let’s face it the heavy numbers are), clearly it’s redhat at first place _by far_, and if I’d guess maybe debian as second and suse at third, or vice versa (just a guess though).
Ubuntu is of course not the most widely used distro. Whoever claims this has imho absolutely no clue of how distrowatch works. Most users don’t visit the site anyway once they have found their distro of coice. Ubuntu is imho a mediocre distro with big hype that got pushed by the Ubuntu-community a lot (such things happen when you are overenthusiastic, thus normal).
Honestly, I am tired of the “Ubuntu this Ubuntu that” articles. Some people believe that it is the holy grail and useful for everything, but let’s be honest: It is a mediocre distro. Nothing more, nothing less. The security tools are almost nonexistant, sudo is horrible, the root account is messed up in Ubuntu, no firewalls, no SELinux and so on and so on. All important factors when it comes to Enterprise Linux.
Ubuntu might be a nice thing for newcomers to Desktop-Linux, for everything else, it is not very useful. Red Hat is THE distro in the Enterprise area, for good reason, so Oracle will build something similar from scratch or check e.g. Whitebox, CentOS, Aurox or something like that (if they can be bought).
For Oracle, Novell or Red Hat would bring a solid customer base, distros designed for the enterprise (Oracle’s territory), substantial engineering and support staff and brand recognition. That’s what you’d be paying for. In other words, a well-drilled, ready-working infrastructure that would take a lot of time and money to build from scratch.
Buying Ubuntu would bring a distro designed for consumer desktops (at the moment, anyway), and nothing more.
It’s hard to see this idea panning out even if Mr Shuttleworth was prepared to sell which doesn’t sound likely. And if he did, he’d leave so many folks in the lurch that his next trip into outer space would probably turn out to be one way.
This whole Oracle/Linux notion is turning into another web hysteria come rumour central thing.
A mix of Larry Ellisons personality and aggressive business tactics and Ubuntu’s community driven project are a no match. The heart of the Ubuntu community would simply detach themselves and leave Larry with a skeleton for a partner.
i couldn’t disagree with you less. Personally, I think Mssr. Shuttleworth would never do it. not to say that he wouldnt accept some gratuity for developing a comercial distro for Oracle. But if you read the Ubunto credo.. it says..is now and will always be free…
Snapping up Ubuntu would not only save Ellison and Oracle a considerable amount of money, it would also eliminate some of the headaches associated with trying to integrate a company like Novell.
He probably not only wants a linux distro alone, but also wants the technogies and the products novell owns
Anyone else getting tired of this Ubuntu stuff, even getting suspicious of them? I mean mailing out multiple copies of it for free, seeing it’s name everywhere, something’s just not lining up. I find nothing different about Ubuntu, and it is the only distro that I have zero access to my email, I keep getting messages saying my ISP is incompatible with Ubuntu, and I have no problem with any other OS in the world, only Ubuntu, even Debian is not a problem for my email. But I just wanted to see if anyone else has suspicion about Canonical’s tactics, almost a cult, wanting everyone to only use their software, and attacking people who critisize K/Ubuntu. I’m only interested in PCLinuxOS, SUSE, Gentoo, and FreeBSD and OpenBSD. I think there is no Linux distro in the world that can compete with Free and OpenBSD for mutiple reasons. Any of you have negative thoughts towards Canonical and Ubuntu?
“Anyone else getting tired of this Ubuntu stuff”
Yes.
“even getting suspicious of them?”
No.
“I keep getting messages saying my ISP is incompatible with Ubuntu”
Uh, messages? From whom? What does the message say?
“I think there is no Linux distro in the world that can compete with Free and OpenBSD for mutiple reasons.”
I agree but lets not open up that old flamewar. I got tired of that many years ago.
When I use Firefox and log into my ISP’s email site, it says the login security is incompatible, is not accessable. I filed a bug about it months ago, but whatever, it’s an Ubuntu problem, not a Linux kernel problem.
Sorry about BSD vs Linux, no flamewar intended. Thank you for the gentle critizism or correction. Again, sorry.
If your post is anything to go by, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ubuntu developers were left scratching their head. What exactly is the problem?
From your post, I’m assuming that you’ve installed Ubuntu and for some reason can’t log onto your ISP’s webmail? Have you tried isolating the problem instead of just pointing the finger at Ubuntu?
Er, did I miss something? Has Ubuntu really become so synonymous with linux that an analyst could draw a straight line between a philosophically free and open community distro and a hard-core enterprise software company second only to Microsoft, and call is a logical connection?
The most popular topics in that large, 67,000 member forum right now concern tweaking xgl or whether an orange theme is appropriate for dapper, and Larry will somehow leverage that to strengthen and fortify their enterprise base?
Oracle and “Humanity towards others”, together at last?
Please. *buntu is a great community distro, and their forum is probably one of the better and more support distro-oriented forums. I’ve used it myself and find it to be one of the most inoffensive distros out there, and they’ve earned their reputation for being clean and easy to use, but, really. This has to end.
Ubuntu and Oracle? Orabuntu? Ubanoracle? Good grief.
This story has been blow waaaaay out of proportion, culminating in this collision of two massive marketing hype machines, inevitable I suppose. But the buzz has likely had the desired effect: Oracle simply wanted to fire a warning shot across Red Hat’s bow after the JBoss acquisition. Larry does this thing all the time.
I’d see him buying CentOS for that reason alone.
Using the word “analyst” very very loosely….
I doubt Oracle is looking for a community driven, desktop focused distribution. If I look at what Oracle has as product line and what it supports now and has in the past, it’ll be an RPM based distribution with a strong focus on enterprise servers. Maybe they’ll make a move with CentOS or, as speculated before, do a buyout of Novell. Or this will all just go away as soon as the next bubble of hot air is released to the media.
Google = Ubuntu: Google is a more lightweight web company that caters mostly to the general public. Ubuntu is lightweight and completely free plus quality. Also there is Mepis using Ubuntu base as well. They could offer it from their site and just support it.
Oracle = Novell: Novell has a STACK ready for Oracle which is what Oracle needs as I don’t think they have a competitor for JBOSS. They were trying to buy JBOSS earlier.
IBM = Red Hat: The same for IBM as their competition for JBOSS is closed I think. Unless Red Hat doesn’t need them or is more limited then IBM.
Apple = BSD: If they went open source they would be competing directly with BSD since they use their base. So Apple could become just another true BSD distro. Not a bad thing though as it could be the best one.
Microsoft = OpenSolaris: Well if they add WMV support it may be a start but I would consider using OpenSolaris as a base because of it being the most enterprise friendly or just start from scratch; maybe with their SingularityOS project. Sun would have to open Java before MS would open .NET.
Why not just contribute to the development of the pre existing Meta Distros which don’t actually do their own thing but steer and contribute to the direction of currently developed projects.
!!!
The era of the “my-only for us-propietay- OS” is coming to and end, mainly because of Linux and BSD existence. Windows is not going to disappear, but over the years Ms will find more and more difficult selling it.
With many “key” big enterprise software is happening the same. PostgreSQl, MySQL and other sofware, are hurting Big closed-propietary software companies to a point of no return.
So Oracle has learn from IBM a, SUN, and its taking the OS train, before things get to bad. Now they try to take advantage from Linux. Is not that they believe in open software or Linux .. Is just simply marketing and business diversification.
They may do well in buying Novell or Red hat, now that they still can. If not, it will be Red Hat or Novell which will buy them in 3 years…
Ubuntu would be good, and cheaper, but not sure that Canonical want that. If Ubuntu keep on this way, could be the Red Hat of 2008 and bothering hard Ms by 2010…
But if Oracle really want to “technically know” and take the new OS-Software wave, they better make their own Linux distro from scratch. They can call it “Moneyx”…
Anyone remember DireStraits ???
“Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
You play the “Keybord” on the “Open Soft”
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and your “BITs” for free
Money for nothin’ and “BITs” for free
(as in beer)
Jimmy hendrix dixit!
!!!
Edited 2006-04-19 11:51
This is just a load of FUD. What the hell would Oracle gain from buying a Desktop Linux distribution that has very little to none enterprise exposure (nothing against Ubuntu, i use it my self very happily). If they were to buy Novell, well i guess that would be the end of Novell Desktop. I can’t see Oracle using any resources on a desktop distribution. They would take Suse Server and that’s that and stack it up against the likes of red hat enterprise server and MS SQL Server. Most sense in terms of an aquisition would be redhat. They more or less dropped the Desktop from their portfolio and conetrate fully on the enterprise server market. Also their portfolio of applications would integrate nicely into oracle, more so than Novell. But then again i don’t think that redhat will be bought that easily …
Ubuntu development is funded by the Ubuntu Foundation which was set up by Canonical. Shuttleworth doesn’t own Ubuntu. The only thing he owns is Canonical and its employees. I don’t, therefore, see how Oracle can “buy” Ubuntu when it was specifically set up to always be free from commercial takeover.
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