October 25, 2006
by sjvn01
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On the eve of Ubuntu Linux’s version 6.10 release, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu and its commercial wing, Canonical Ltd., held an early morning meeting in London to talk about Ubuntu, Canonical, and their business future.
Despite the almost endless rumors about an Oracle deal in the works to either buy or partner with Ubuntu, no such deal, according to Shuttleworth, will be announced… yet.
October 25, 2006
by sjvn01
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No one saw this coming. People talked about Oracle making its own Linux, or buying a Linux company (Ubuntu?). But, the news that Oracle is erasing Red Hat’s trademarks from Unbreakable Linux and supporting it for less than Red Hat is a bolt from the blue.
Or, perhaps, I should say that Oracle is firing a shot at the heart of Red Hat, and commercial Linux?
This really, really ticks me off.
Oracle’s claims as to why it felt it had to make this move are BS.
October 25, 2006
by sjvn01
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Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux move caught the Linux community by surprise, but, for the most part, they’re seeing a silver lining to Oracle’s latest shocker. Red Hat, for example, made the best of the news that Oracle will take Red Hat Linux and support it at cut-rates.
“The opportunity for open source just got bigger,” said spokesperson Leigh Day. “Oracle’s announcement further validates open source and Red Hat’s technical leadership. We will continue to optimize Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Oracle and compete on value and innovation.”
Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire Inc. took a less optimistic view of the situation. This is “Not good for Red Hat,” said Carmony. “Their stock is already down nearly 17 percent in after market trading on this news. I guess it is, however, slightly better for Red Hat than if Oracle had gone with Debian or Ubuntu.”
October 25, 2006
by sjvn01
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Oracle Corp. on Oct. 25 announced that it would provide the same enterprise class support for Linux as it provides for its database, middleware, and applications products. Essentially, this means that Oracle, after removing Red Hat trademarks, will be distributing Oracle Unbreakable Linux, derived from Red Hat’s open-source Linux technology.
Oracle, however, claims that it is merely “supporting” Unbreakable Linux, which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Other, far smaller companies, such as CentOS and White Box Enterprise Linux, have taken Red Hat’s code, removed the Red Hat trademarks, and spun their own Linux distributions from it. No major business, until now, though, has made such a move.
October 17, 2006
by sjvn01
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One major advantage Microsoft developers have over their Linux counterparts is that they have access to MSDN (Microsoft Software Developer Network), a magnificent online developer resource. Linux has had nothing to compare. Until now.
The Free Standards Group (FSG), a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and promoting open-source software standards, announced today that it has partnered with O’Reilly Media to offer similar services to Linux application developers as part of its LSB (Linux Standard Base) Developer Network.
The LSB Developer Network (LDN) is meant to serve as the central, community-based source of information for software developers writing portable Linux applications. The beta site is now open for business.
The newly-minted LDN website currently contains a custom library of Linux content via Safari Books Online, an online reference library that’s a joint venture of O’Reilly and the Pearson Technology Group. With this, Linux developers can go to one place for their programming information needs instead of cobbling it together from hither and yon.
The site also includes FSG-provided software tools, standards, forums, and content. By using the tools and information on the site, software developers can build their applications according to the LSB specification, and certify it using the FSG’s certification and testing services, receiving the ability for their application to run on multiple distributions of Linux.
Specifically, LDN offers these features:
To make this happen, Linux Magazine editor Martin Streicher will serve as LDN’s editorial director. The LDN is also being supported by such leading Linux companies as IBM, HP, MySQL, Novell, Real Networks, and Red Hat.
FSG CTO and Debian Linux founder Ian Murdock noted that “In order for Linux to be a truly competitive platform, there must be a central information source for developers building portable Linux applications.”
“Microsoft has done a great job with [MSDN]; we aim to do the same for the Linux Standard Base using the “bottom up” community-based development model exemplified by open source and Linux.” The “main difference,” Murdock went on to say, “Is we’re doing this in a community-based, bottom-up style. The Free Standards Group provides a platform for collaboration on standards and interoperability. This will be no different. We’re providing a platform for collaboration on developer tools with the support of IBM, HP, Novell, Red Hat, and other members.”
“Partnering with the undisputed leader in developer content, O’Reilly, is the first step in this project. We urge the community to join and help build the network,” concluded Murdock.
Some of the community is already there. “Application developer support is critical to the continued growth of the Linux market,” said Chris Cooper, Novell‘s director of developer services. “While there are now more than 1000 applications certified on SUSE Linux Enterprise, we are committed to bringing even more applications to our platform. Working with the Linux Standard Base Developer Network will provide yet another avenue for application developers to write applications that work on multiple distributions, increasing broad market adoption of Linux.”
There’s no question that there’s a real and pressing need for such a service. Jeremy White, founder and CEO of CodeWeavers Inc., said, “I think that most Linux developers and advocates have a rose colored view of what the Linux development process and market really is, at least for a an ISV that wants to create a Desktop application for sale. It takes a lot of hard work to create a Desktop product for Linux.”
“Even worse, that market is highly fragmented. Yes, it really does matter to an ISV [independent software vendor] that there is Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSE, and on and on; yes, they are ‘close’, but this isn’t horseshoes. The sooner we face that truth and get on with doing what we can to improve the situation (yay for xdg-utils!), the better,” White added.
Kathy Bennett, IBM Linux Technology Center director, commented that “This is yet another step by supporters of the open community to make Linux a better and more competitive computing platform.”
October 17, 2006
by sjvn01
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Repeat after me: “There is no Oracle Linux.” I don’t care how many times you hear stock analysts say that Oracle is about to launch its own Linux. It’s just not going to happen.
The latest example of wishful thinking comes from Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert, who wrote on October 13, “Our independent checks in the past two weeks indicate that Oracle seems to be close to introducing its own software ‘stack.'”
Jefferies, an investment bank, then cut its price target on Red Hat from $24 to $21. Red Hat’s stock price then fell more than 7 percent that day. Since then it’s been continuing to fall.
This is, by my count, the third time that the “Oracle is going to come out with its own Linux” rumor has surfaced. And, of course, there have been variations on the theme, such as: Oracle is going to buy Red Hat, Novell, or Ubuntu.
I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Oracle isn’t going to buy a Linux company to make its own distribution, and the company isn’t going to make its very own Linux.