Oracle may launch own Linux version

**Outlaw** · 04-17-2006, 11:25 PM

Oracle may launch own Linux version

Yeah, I don't know about that. I agree with one of the commenters who says Oracle has bigger fish to fry, and I would eat my shoes if they were able to buy Redhat. Let them have Novell.

**Compunuts** · 04-17-2006, 11:46 PM

I thought they are buying Novell. ???

**Outlaw** · 04-17-2006, 11:49 PM

I was just ranting, in case they have RH in their crosshairs

. You're correct, the article mentions Novell as a potential buy.

**Compunuts** · 04-18-2006, 02:55 AM

Well, ya never knows ...

With Larry's ego and his money, he can do it if he really wanted to ....

**coltrane** · 04-18-2006, 09:48 AM

that makes me nervous....does Oracle have a track record when it comes to software development outside of the dB? Is this more about the development of the Linux OS or an opportunity to take jabs the the MS juggernaut ?

**Tyr_7BE** · 04-18-2006, 05:06 PM

It would be a shame if they bought Novel and messed it up. Despite problems turning a profit, some great things have come from Novel recently. Xgl with compiz window manager is the latest, not to mention almost completely supporting the mono project, as well as churning out a bunch of cool free software. It's mainly the old Ximian guys who are making headlines with things like Tomboy, Evolution, Beagle, and F-Spot, but if Oracle buys Novel and screws it all up, that will be the end of their legacy.

**mojo jojo** · 04-18-2006, 05:58 PM

I hope they don't buy Novell or Red Hat

perosnally after trying 10.0 I love it!! more then ubuntu

I don't know much about DBs but what makes oracle so good?

**Outlaw** · 04-18-2006, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by mojo jojo

I don't know much about DBs but what makes oracle so good?

Nothing. I was just chatting with a former Oracle guy over here and he basically echoed what the general sentiment is about them. "They'll do everything, and nothing well"

I'm no DBA, but from what I've gathered from being exposed to it, is that it is overly complex, difficult to setup and manage and horribly documented. A stand alone single instance database may be quite manageable, however, a multi-instance / multi-node cluster with a middle tier app is just plain garbage.

They'll fall flat on their face IMO, with a Linux distro. They don't have the right attitude for that.

**Tyr_7BE** · 04-18-2006, 09:58 PM

I used to be a low level DBA for a while. Never really liked it, but it did give me exposure to databases. The thing about Oracle is that it scales really really well. When you start getting tables with 50+ million entries, other databases tend to start slowing down and crapping out. Oracle handles those kinds of situations just like it handles normal situations. It's an absolute necessity for any kind of enterprise data service. Every major corporation I know uses Oracle for production servers.

It pretty much has to be necessary. Outlaw heard right about the admin and install procedures. When you install MySQL, it's as simple as a double-click (or clicking "OK" in the case of a linux system with graphical package manager). Just installing the Oracle client is a half day ordeal if you've done it before. On my first install ever it took me a day and a half to figure out how to get it set up. It involved manually copying files from the downloaded client package to various locations on the system, modifying values in /etc, and creating a bunch of symlinks to get the system looking like what the installer expects. I've never set up the actual database, but I hear the effort involved is legendary.