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Oracle Creates Linux Division

MikeDartt writes "According to C|Net news, Oracle is devoting an entire division to creating a line of products for Linux. As the article notes, this isn't surprising, given Ellison's antipathy towards MS. Yet another announcement for LWE, eh? " Will this lead to even more enterprise credibility?

96 comments

  1. Re:Wrong arguments? by aj_seigo · · Score: 1

    define skilled admins.

    hacks with certificates hanging out their back pockets? Oracle Certified? whatever.

    there are some amazing DBAs that work with commercial databases. there are also some terrific ones that work with open source RDBMs. for god's sake, how do you think Postgres was written? and writing a database is a might more difficult than using it, no?

    no, it's not about talent out there (after all, how hard is it to learn another RDBMs once you understand the theory? not very.) but rather about features, dependability and availability

  2. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by ptah · · Score: 1

    Although I am not an Oracle guru, my installation experiences with several versions of Oracle on both Linux and Solaris boxen have always proven cumbersome to say the least. Of course, once we got an Oracle Ninja on our team these problems have all but disappeared. I can't speak specifically to the Linux 8i install, but I bet that the fancy dressings (i.e. generalized Linux distro logic) was scratched from the list in the rush to get 8i out the door. Despite delivery flaws, I like the fact the Oracle is pursuing Linux, even if it is for its own financial gains. I don't think Oracle is trying to please the home hacker, they are creating opportunities for mid to large(r) sized companies to move from more expensive Sun/HP solutions to Linux/Apache/Oracle clusters built from less expensive hardware. Of course large Sun/HP camps have quality control, support, and budget issues, and because of the Status Quo FUD, Linux is still pretty much marginalized (at least where I work!) -K The database isn't as important to me anymore, as long as my Perl DBI code runs fast!!!

  3. "Enterprise credibility" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We've got enough enterprise credibility, publicity, good press, user base, advocacy, and other political benefits. Now all we need is the technology to match it. Linux is a great kernel. GNU is a terrific set of utilities around that kernel. X is a decent graphics subsystem. But the operating system isn't complete yet. The GUI is immature, and we've still got a few other crucial features to add before we're ready to take on the mainstream. No offense, but Red Hat isn't the perfect operating system for my mother's box yet. It probably will be in another year or two. Shouldn't we cool it a bit on the advocacy and publicity until the technology is there to the point where we're ready to have people try our OS?

  4. Re:FreeBSD by guacamole · · Score: 1

    (well, that and the ease of remote administration using ports, giving the advantage of fast downloads without hunting, and compileing software optimized completely to my hardware with the right /etc/make.conf flags).

    I also don't want to sound like a Debian nut, but I must say that I like the Debian package management more (real packages not some makefiles.) One thing I don't like about ports is that one has to remake the ports after cvsuping the ports collection. When you upgrade Debian every deb package that is in distribution is upgraded. Second, I don't like compiling them all the time, some packages take a while to compile and all I wanted to see is how this cool-progie-2.3 works. On debian "apt-get install something" will get and install the something package. But yes, sometimes I do like getting the source to deb packages and rebuilding them to give better optimization for system.

    And updating everytning in /etc BY HAND when you upgrade dFreeBSD istribution is just a pain in the ass. I conclude that Debian GNU/Linux is more maintainable but FreeBSD has its own good points too.

  5. Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I finally got my Oracle8i Enterprise Edition for Linux cd today! YaY!

    1. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by Photon+Ghoul · · Score: 1

      WRONG. _I_ don't want cheap/free PC's of low quality. _I_ don't want a free ISP. _I_ don't want a free version of popular software just because it's "free". _I_ want free software when it's better than the commercial proprietary version of it.

      In the end, it's the corporation's ass that they care about. That's it. That's all. That is what _I_ despise.

    2. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

      Okay. I'm wrong you don't. I'm sure lots of people around here don't. But, doesn't it get you that the AC's around here overwelmingly do?

      And yes, free software that is as good or better than commercial software is a great thing! But I can't agree with people like RMS that would rather use inferior free software than paying for a product that makes it easier to get the job done. It seems that that's artificially constraining our ability to be creative, solely so that you can view & alter the source code.

      And i grant that for developers, the ability to be creative is highly dependant on the availablity of source code. Now what? I just backed myself in to a corner!

    3. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by JohnnyCannuk · · Score: 1

      God, Canada post must be slow...I still ait got mine yet up here in TO.
      Anyone else get there's yet? I ordered mine in May and I've had my free NT version for 2 months....

      --
      Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
    4. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

      Okay. I'm sorry. I was just recalling the discussion about Netscape/Sun - iPlanet's decision not to port NAS to Linux. In that one it seemed the overwhelming sentiment was that "Hey, why should they have the right to charge me for this when i can get Apache for free?"

      I happened to have also recieved the Oracle CD... My business currently uses MS-SQL... So, it is nice to get Oracle 8 for "free" so as to be able to develop a system and only actually have to pay for it once it's been implemented in the workflow.

      Like i said - sorry! I was in a very poor mood last night!

      :)

    5. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

      Great. Are you going to install it? Are you going to create something it's meant for (by that i mean something that MySQL can't quite handle)? And when that happens, are you actually gonna pay Oracle one day?

      Or freeload, as seems to be so common.

      I wonder if these companies even read slashdot. If they did, they'ed realize that there's no money to be made from the Linux community (that's a very very generalized statement). They want Free PC's that don't display ads, free ISP's that don't track their comings and goings, free operating systems (ok, that one actually is a reality), and free versions of popular software from ported from other OS's. And when it does get ported, they can then study it, lobby (on Slashdot, mind you!) for lower prices, and when that fails, create an opensource clone of if. What innovation!

      SO SORRY!!! I just happen to be in an especially poor mood tonight.

    6. Re:Cool, they sent me my 8i (Linux) CD today! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm... you're wrong about people using Oracle who want it for free.

      I want it for free (or at least able to license internally for development sites), but would promote paying for support for it (which we already do). Paying for our production system(s) isn't much of a big deal, at least where I work.
      Getting Oracle off of NT is a definite goal. No, we can't exactly afford a Sparc or HP server...
      ...but the PPro200x2 server we have it running it is pretty dang fast already, and that is with that machine also being all that an NT server can be, too...


  6. Re:Oracle's desperate by C.Lee · · Score: 1

    >Sounds like Oracle is desperate for some good PR. They're taking a >beating for backing out of the recent PC Magazine performance test.
    You are an idoit, you know that? After all the MindCraft/PC Week benchmark bullshit, a company like Oracle would really have to stupid to allow their product to be "benchmarked" by a magazine like PC Magazine. They quite simply don't have either the knowlege or the skills to pull something like this off, and more and more people are realizing this. You're going to see even more companies refuse to allow their products to be "reviewed" in mags that use that kind of shoddy testing in the future.

  7. Re:This rocks! by Random+Hamster · · Score: 1

    In my experience, the fun of installing ODBC for Oracle is just the beginning of the delight.

    I personally am far from convinced of the viability of using ODBC and Oracle to create robust software usable by end users.

    It may be that the native APIs are better, but are hardly what you would call 'high level'.

  8. Oracle and ``Open Source'' by ole · · Score: 1

    rms describes Oracle's ``Open Source'' strategy in
    http://www.gnu.org/phi losophy/free-software-for-freedom.html:

    At a trade show in late 1998, dedicated to the operating system often referred to as ``Linux'', the featured speaker was an executive from a prominent software company. He was probably invited on account of his company's decision to ``support'' that system. Unfortunately, their form of ``support'' consists of releasing non-free software that works with the system--in other words, using our community as a market but not contributing to it.

    He said, ``There is no way we will make our product open source, but perhaps we will make it `internal' open source. If we allow our customer support staff to have access to the source code, they could fix bugs for the customers, and we could provide a better product and better service.'' (This is not an exact quote, as I did not write his words down, but it gets the gist.)

    People in the audience afterward told me, ``He just doesn't get the point.'' But is that so? Which point did he not get?

    He did not miss the usual point associated with the term ``open source.'' That point says nothing about freedom, it says only that allowing more people to look at the source code and help improve it will make for faster and better development. The executive grasped that point completely; unwilling for other reasons to carry out this approach in full, users included, he was considering implementing it partially, within the company.

    The point that he missed is the point that ``open source'' was designed not to raise: the point that users deserve freedom.

    Spreading the idea of freedom is a big job--it needs your help. The GNU project will stick to the term ``free software'', and I hope that you will too.

  9. Ellison should buy, then GPL Qt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Despite all that other stuff, Bill Gates does make a lot of contributions to education. Ellison, with all his billions, should buy Troll/Qt and GPL Qt. He could claim the whole thing with some sort of spin that it's for all the young programmers working on Linux, to give them even more freedom to learn and hack on it -- or something like that. The result would be an end to all that stuff about Qt not being GPL, and maybe a merger with Gnome to create an even BETTER GUI for Linux. (something that would play into Ellison's need to see MS lose market share)

  10. Re:FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    According to IDC, BSD marketshare is shrinking. The plain truth is there's no big money to be made with BSD. Even simple apps like CDE have proven a financial failure when they were marketed to BSD, so much so that they are no longer available. The company I work for ported one of our major applications to FreeBSD and we only sold 5 copies. The Linux port is still selling strong, maybe even a little better than Solaris. Although I don't have the exact figures, our Linux sales are at least past the 2000 mark. With SGI and IBM joining the Linux parade with tweaked versions of Linux tailored to high performance hardware (64 way SMP in SGI's case), the attractiveness of Linux for Oracle is all the more appealing. We all know Oracle is targeted to companies with money to spend, not to granny and her recipe collection.

  11. Re:Larry Ellison is a sailor? by 2b · · Score: 1

    It's more correct to say that Ellison paid other people to sail his 80 foot maxi-boat, even in races where the owner was required to sail.

    Ellison is a wimpy dilettante, not a sailor. Contrast with Steve Fossett - super-rich *and* balls of steel.

  12. Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by doog · · Score: 2

    I received an early adopters CD of Oracle 8i on linux, and I have to say WTF Oracle? The installation uses a Java based installer, hard coded to run from /usr/local/jre ... Hmmm nothin in the docs about chaning that. Ok, create a symbolic link... hmmm Can't run the install as root? Ok... then during the installation I have to drop to shell and run some root enabling script... cant two temp dirs because of privilages? Hmmmm...drop to shell, su to root, create the dirs by hand...back to the installer... then it tries to create a directory in /proc and fails... finally it gives me an error saying Java.Lang.Thread failed... Great testing guys, and Im runnin Redhat 6...The html docs are horrible, and mention none of this, plus the installer gives me no clues as to what and how to name my database and associated accounts. Then when all is installed and done, I'm left with a bunch of files in a OraHome1/bin dir that I have no idea what they do. How do I run it? How do I administer it? SQL 7 is feeling pretty comfy right now... -doog

    1. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Take some time to read the documentation. Oracle is not a toy. And you are using an early adopters CD.

      If you can't handle the installation process on Linux, you may want to try the windows NT version :-). How is SQL/Server 7 installation on Linux BTW ?

    2. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by doog · · Score: 1

      You missed my point by a mile...if companies dont create their Linux versions with the same quality as their NT versions, then people like me aren't going to be motivated to develop for it, Linux or not. The bottom line is I need a fast, stable reliable DBMS that is relatively easy to setup and administer. The kludgey, untested Oracle installation program doesn't help me convince other developers and sys-admins at my company to move from NT-SQL 7 to Linux-8i...

      -doog

    3. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by jd · · Score: 2

      I dunno. If you get irritated enough by the installer, and throw the CD out of a 20-story building, it could potentially cause a serious injury. :)

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    4. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by jjmcwill · · Score: 1

      I agree. I also tried Oracle 8i and ran into similar problems using a Debian distribution. I still can't resolve the java.lang.thread issue even after following the Oracle OTN discussion about 8i Linux for several weeks. I finally gave up and installed Oracle 8. I got that running at least, though it was still slightly painful, and forced me to drop back to a glibc2.0 distribution. Oracle 8 will not run on a glibc2.1 distribution.

      Still using PostgreSQL to run our web based, bug tracking system internally.

      Jeff

      --
      Opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.
    5. Re:Oracle 8i on Linux - WTF ? by BadlandZ · · Score: 2
      Oracle is not a toy.

      Sure it is... if you have the money and the time, there isn't anything you can't buy for yourself and consider a "toy."

      You make it sound like he is messing around with an atomic bomb or a machine gun or something... and if he isn't careful he could kill someone. I don't think someone buying Oracle and installing it is nearly that dangerous. :-) Or, is it ;-)

  13. Slashdot back issues DELETED? (OffTopic, Helpful) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have all the back issues of Slashdot prior to June 21st been deleted? The earliest issue still available by following the standard URL pattern is June 21st 1999 http://slashdot.org/ index.pl?section=&issue=730291&mode=thread. This is off-topic but nowhere else exists on Slashdot to ask Slashdot-specific questions in public.

  14. Re:Woo hoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe you should have a friendly talk with a friendly Oracle consultant to correct some of your misconceptions.

    You should never use raw partitions without having benchmarked YOUR application. Using raw partitions is sometimes a requirement (for example with OPS), but other than that my default choice would be to use the file system.

    OODBMS are not "much better". They are more suited for some kind of work. If you are an OO programmer with a persistence need in a single-user (or low user count) situation, then yes go to OODBMS. If you are a database programmer (OO or not) having to deal with thousands of concurrent users and petabytes of data there is no way to beat Oracle right now (well almost, nothing is absolute).

    Oracle's optimizer is not perfect, that's true. However with enough experience you start writing your queries in an efficient style (and not the "I am a Java programmer,I hate SQL and will do as I please" style).

    I was a technical consultant (specialized in OO & low level programming (read OCI)) at Oracle until a few months ago. I do have some knowledge of those topics.

  15. Chickens are coming home to roost. by mrsam · · Score: 1

    A lot of this is due to the fact that there's a lot of bad blood between Microsoft and pretty much everyone else: Oracle, IBM, Dell, Gateway, and others.

    Microsoft is currently reaping the rewards of their arrogance and bullying of the past. Oracle sees an opportunity to package a complete top-to-bottom database solution that kicks a lot of ass, and write Microsoft completely out of the picture. Initially, they picked Sun and Solaris, but that was before Linux took really off. If they had to do "Raw Iron" again, they would go with Linux -- no doubt about it.

    A rather unique feature of Oracle's database design is that each database client is serviced by a separate task (well, that was true the last time I checked, a few years ago, but I'm sure that's still the case today). This is unlike their competitors - Sybase and Informix - whose database engines are basically single processes which multiplex themselves amongst all currect clients. The latest versions of their servers do support multithreading, but because multithreading is implemented differently on pretty much every *nix, they may not be able to take advantage of any particular platform's unique multithreading abilities.

    Meanwhile, Oracle's database servers had separate processes servicing clients for at least a decade now. Which means that on SMP machines Oracle servers should be able to kick some major ass. I never actually had a chance to play with Oracle on a multi-CPU box, but knowing the way their servers work, I would expect them to positively smoke.

    No wonder Oracle is salivating over Linux now. SMP on NT is a pathetic joke. With Solaris, you have to sign over your bank account to Sun, in order to purchase a multi-CPU license (I'm not sure if Solaris x86 even supports SMP). An Oracle solution on a Linux box with a couple of Xeons should have a rather impressive price/performance factor.
    --

  16. Re:Woo hoo! by randolfe · · Score: 1

    arguments from authority are neither impressive nor valid.

    you see:
    (a) i was an Oracle consultant for better than 7 years. i also contributed to 2 tomes on SQL optimization in Oracle (if you think real hard you can figure out which ones).
    (b) i've implemented massive real-time systems in Versant, ODI and Objy for companies like Ameritech, GTE, and AT&T. in all cases we replaced Oracle 7.x or 8 systems and acheived performance improvements measured in orders of magnitude.

    i could go on but the topic was Linux and Oracle. I generally agree this is a good thing but methinks you toot the horn of Ideological dogma a bit much.

  17. ;-) by RoLlEr_CoAsTeR · · Score: 1

    peace, code, and linux!

    --

    Insert mind here.
  18. Re:barely on-topic... by DrumHacksaw · · Score: 1

    habitrail:/usr/src/linux/include
    hacksaw > egrep "typedef.*uid_t" */* 2> /dev/null

    asm-alpha/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned int __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-arm/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-i386/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-m68k/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-mips/posix_types.h:typedef long __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-ppc/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned int __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-sparc/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-sparc64/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned int __kernel_uid_t;
    asm-sparc64/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t32;
    asm/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;
    [deletia]
    linux/types.h:typedef __kernel_uid_t uid_t;

    So the answer is "depends". A short is signed, BTW. It's not clear how a a uid of 50,000 would be dealt with.

    --

    Pin the spig.

  19. Re:Wrong arguments? by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    Right. They can make money doing it. That's what makes it s a good decision!

    Comparing Oracle to Postgres or MySQL is just a poor decision. As is comparing Oracle on a 64 CPU Sun box vs. SQL Server running on a Quad Xeon...

  20. Erm, uid of 50,000 is OK. by bkosse · · Score: 1
    Quoting your source snippit:
    asm-i386/posix_types.h:typedef unsigned short __kernel_uid_t;

    The uid is an unsigned, not signed, so anything between 0 and 65535 inclusive is legal.

    There are 32-bit uid patches around.

    --

    --
    Ben Kosse
    Remember Ed Curry!
    1. Re:Erm, uid of 50,000 is OK. by DrumHacksaw · · Score: 1

      Yep, you're right. Unsigned. Time for some sleep.
      :-)

      --

      Pin the spig.

  21. Re:I bet they make their own distribution by simong · · Score: 1

    It would be cheaper than implementing Raw Iron on HP, for them and everyone else.

  22. Re:Ahem. by simong · · Score: 1

    According the papers I read, the first version of Oracle with a minimal OS (enough for bootstrapping the servers) was called Raw Iron and ran on HP. Solaris was/is due 'soon'.

    For all that, Linux would be the perfect platform for that project - create a minimal kernel that just supports I/O and networking, sit it on a boot partition and let Oracle do the rest itself.

  23. Re:Woo hoo! by randolfe · · Score: 1

    On this point, we wholeheartedly agree. The more enterprise DBMS' ported to Linux the better. When is Informix's Linux port due; do you happen to know?

    ...Then perhaps I can begin a campaign for FreeBSD and BSDI ports or said DBMS'.

  24. Re:FreeBSD by randolfe · · Score: 1
    AC is all too correct. BSDI is so dumbfounded about what to do to save their 1% market share that they're claiming to support native Linux in their upcoming release http://www.bsdi.com/press/19981214.

    Then again, they also claimed Java support would be in 4.0. (A don't reply with 'Try Kaffe'; Kaffe is a nice excercise but doesn't hold up well for production purposes).

  25. By That Logic... by BadlandZ · · Score: 2
    Well, buy that logic, we should all use Red Hat, because they have the biggest market share, and it's easier for ISV's to port to a single distribution, reguardless of the platforms technical merits or problems.

    I am just trying to point out that popularity some times flies in the face of logic. If we have to go with Linux, then, the LSB will be more important than ever... And, along those lines, it would mean that the LSB would be more important than standards getting in the way of development of Linux itself, because without standards, someone like Red Hat could end up being the only Linux that VAR/ISV's want anything to do with.

  26. jimmy smokes crack! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    jimmy smokes crack!

  27. Good! by 20MHz · · Score: 0

    First Post!

  28. Woo hoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm seriously glad to see this. I've been a big fan of Oracle for a while, and once Linux has a stable kernel with Large Files support in it, it'll be excellent! I'm all for it!

    1. Re:Woo hoo! by randolfe · · Score: 1

      I'm seriously gald to see this, too. Although, I've been a big detractor of Oracle for quite a while. Firstly, you have to use RAW partitions for anything serious, so your contention about the advantage of Linux here is bogus. Memory management is more the issue.

      Oracle's optimizers don't. Just stack a couple of subqueries on top of a couple of joins and you can showplan to prove this.

      ODBMS' are a much better way. Perhaps Oracle should spend time putting real Java native persistence into 8i before porting to yet another OS. Or perhaps we should get ObjectStore to port ODI onto Linux (hint).


      --R

    2. Re:Woo hoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      arguments from authority are neither impressive nor valid.
      You are absolutely correct.

      Congratulations for your successes with OO databases. I fully recognize that they have their strong points and as an OO programmer by heart I would really like to see them succeed. I indeed saw OODBs trounce Oracle on some real-time tests. Never so for less technical applications with lots of concurrent users.

      Speaking of ideological dogma, the use of raw devices is pretty much an old ideological dogma shared by many Oracle users.

      And I do not really care about Oracle on Linux, except that I would probably choose Linux over NT for personnal developments.
      My real wish is to see Oracle on MacOS X. And DB2. And Versant, Objectstore, etc.

    3. Re:Woo hoo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      When is Informix's Linux port due; do you happen to know?
      Nope, sorry.

      I certainly would like xBSD ports (which would be helped or would help a MacOS X port)

  29. Can business keep up? by lisa · · Score: 1

    I'm sure we'll be seeing 'big announcements' like this at every Linux show from now on. If I remember correctly, they are scheduling 4 Linux Worlds a year, and then there's all the other shows. That's a lot of announcements. And of course every business wants to make bigger and better news to smother all of the other announcements. It seems as though it wouldn't take very long for the 'big news' to become not so big anymore. Eventually, they could announce that Bill Gates was installing Slackware at home and we may not even blink.
    Ok. Maybe we won't be *that* numb.

    -Lisa

  30. Question about reliance quote by Ded+Bob · · Score: 1

    Analysts say it's a smart move for Oracle to latch onto the growing Linux movement and to lessen its reliance on Microsoft and Windows.

    Wasn't Oracle trying to distance themselves from all OS's with "RAW"-something or other?

    I believe they are latching on to the hype over Linux more than lessening their reliance of Microsoft. They are fairly cross-platform already.

    Really, how dependent is Oracle on Microsoft systems? When I think of Oracle I always think UNIX. It is probably just me. :)

    1. Re:Question about reliance quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too right, Oracle should stick to UNIX software, I have had the displeasure of working with Oracle8 on NT, and it's a piece of crap. I reckon that Ellison's fanfare about RawIron was a bit misguided when he said it would get rid of the need for expensive and unreliable OS. I do hope that Oracle's interest in Linux proves to be more than a PR ploy.

  31. barely on-topic... by wanderingstar · · Score: 2

    Since the synopsis mentions making Linux more credible in enterprise environments, there's one enterprise-level feature that wasn't in Linux the last time I looked (which, admittedly, was early 1998): >16bit UIDs. Does any distro currently support more than 65536 users?

    [PLEASE don't flame me for not knowing this.]

    1. Re:barely on-topic... by banky · · Score: 1

      I believe there is an Ask Slashdot around here somewhere about this.

      --
      ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
  32. Lay off the white rock and smoke the green leaf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Peace dude [-)

    1. Re:Lay off the white rock and smoke the green leaf by zmooc · · Score: 1

      Roger that

      --
      0x or or snor perron?!
  33. Re:Question about reliance quote (DUH!) by Ded+Bob · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I must have skipped the part about Raw Iron.

    I still have to ask how using a Solaris kernel drops their dependency on Windows NT. Why not ask people to just run Solaris?

    P.S. Obviously, I do not know much about Raw Iron.

  34. "enterprise credibility" misleading by gavinhall · · Score: 1

    Posted by Justin:

    perhaps the term "enterprise credibility" was misleading. i didn't mean using it in an enterprise-critical application, but rather giving people who make purchasing and other decisions in large businesses a good impression of linux.

  35. I bet they make their own distribution by grappler · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Ellison decides to sell complete servers with an Oracle Linux distribution installed. They'd probably put an emphasis on speed and security and integrate an oracle database server.

    Then, they'd start making all kinds of 'improvements' to non-kernel-related aspects of the Oracle Linux distribution.

    --
    Vidi, Vici, Veni
    1. Re:I bet they make their own distribution by Wah · · Score: 1

      How is that bad. I sensed some disgust in your post. Would you rather they go with NT?

      Means more/better jobs for Linux admins, more exposure, better software.

      --
      +&x
    2. Re:I bet they make their own distribution by logicTrAp · · Score: 1

      That's unlikely. Oracle values its relationships with hardware vendors and wouldn't want to annoy them by trying to undercut them.

      [Speaking for myself only and not the company]

    3. Re:I bet they make their own distribution by mistabobdobalina · · Score: 1

      never underestimate ellison's ability to make stupid maneuvers...

      --
      -- your knees hurt, don't they?
  36. Missing enterprise level features. by Some+guy+named+Chris · · Score: 2

    Truthfully, there are a few more areas where Linux isn't ready for the enterprise. At least for mission critical applications.

    Primarily the missing elements relate to high availability applications, with failover capability.

    Things like a journalling file system, and HA clustering (no, Beowulf doesn't do high-availability) are desperately needed. I know there are some early projects in the works to address these issues, but they don't seem to be ready for prime-time just yet.

    Now, if I could run Oracle 8i Enterprise for Linux with the parallel server and hot standby database options enabled, I would be happy. But, truthfully, when you get a web license for Oracle (licensed by CPU power, not per concurrent user), the costs of the Oracle licenses are so much higher than hardware/os licensing costs, that buying a couple of Ultras and SunCluster isn't that big of a deal anymore. What's $100,000 worth of hardware/os when the Oracle licenses cost $500,000.

    And, if you don't need the high availability features of 8i Enterprise, then you probably don't need the Enterprise version at all. Then, Oracle 8 on Linux is well suited for your needs. At least that's what I've found to be true.

    Linux is evolving rapidly, and I do prefer it for ordinary work, but it just isn't in the game yet when it comes to enterprise level, high availability implementations.

  37. Antipathy? So? by kzinti · · Score: 2

    Ellison may have antipathy towards MS, but I'll wager that has little to do with the decision. Ellison is a businessman and antipathy earns little money by itself. Ellison won't start a linux division unless he knows it will make money. (He might enjoy a linux division more if it succeeds, contributing to the success of linux and hurting Windoze, but that's another matter.)

    --JT

  38. Chalk up another one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I reckon that'a about it as far as the battle for enterprise credibility is concerned. What's the next crusade?

  39. Ahem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [paranoia mode on] THEY ARE TAITING OUR OS WITH THEIR NON-FREE CRAP!!! [paranoia mode off] Well, actually, at least one battle would be over (the kernel); then we can destroy them with their proprietary I-can't-port-this-to-my-new-arch-since-I-have-no-s ource crap.

    1. Re: Ahem. by MostlyHarmless · · Score: 1

      It would be nice if everyone gave away their software for free. But the fact is that Oracle is in the business of selling software, and Oracle has identified Linux as an OS that's large enough for them to make money by selling products. As a matter of fact, I *want* commercial software companies to move to Linux, that way I can ditch my Windoze machine and run my favorite apps from Linux (the only thing keeping me on windoze is the software). And if the software I want is non-free, then so be it. While it's not the best, I'd rather have non-free software over no software.

      Note: Before everyone yells at me about all of the free software out there, let me just add that some stuff you currently just have to pay for. Especially in the gaming category, some of the non-free software is simply better. This isn't a dis to open source; open source is definitely the best method. But it's still maturing, and currently you still have to pay to get the best software.

      --
      Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
    2. Re:Ahem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm... find some of the web sites that bitch about Oracle tech support quality and support contract prices... Philip Greenspun sums up Oracle best: They turn you upside down, shake you until no more money falls out of your pockets, and then asks for a littlelot bit more for support... Other oracle bits: The Oracle box that "doesn't need an OS" is/was called Rawhide, and internally was Solaris... --LazyCoward

    3. Re:Ahem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give me a break, we are not talking about a machine that is used for you to irc and play mud on. If Linux is actually going to be considered an enterprise class system it needs commercial applications. Whether they use it or not, no coporations is ever going to base their company on software/hardware that hasnt got a help desk to rely on. In no way does Oracle selling their product hinder the development of free packages such as msql. People really need to give this commercial software is evil a break, its pretty counter productive.

  40. Re:Larry Ellison is a buisnessman? by Shoeboy · · Score: 2

    Don't think so. Larry left his company to dwindle and disintegrate amid rabid infighting while he sailed around the world on his 80 foot yacht. In recent years he's been acting like managing oracle is a hobby he indulges in from time to time. Oracle has suffered from this. I doubt Larry, or anyone else at Oracle believes that they selling a ridiculously overpriced piece of software that runs on a free OS is sound buisness. They just don't want to get left behind in the great linux stampede.
    --Shoeboy

  41. Re:Question about reliance quote... and Raw Iron by Sun+Tzu · · Score: 2

    IIRC, the Raw Iron initiative involves a minimal Solaris kernel without the usual trappings of the OS. Administrators would scarcely know Solaris was there providing low level services to the Oracle software. Presumably, the installation disks for Raw Iron would include the minimal OS so you could literaly start with a "raw iron" computer and a CD and do a single install process.

    After installation, the advantage would be to allow Oracle database analysts to do the complete administration of a dedicated database box without support from a sysadmin. Of course, it could be tuned specifically for good database performance without considering other services -- other than SQL*Net type things that support database connectivity.

  42. Here ya go... by FascDot+Killed+My+Pr · · Score: 1

    Well, the problem was (like for many other systems, MS SQL Server included) user-defined functions. I limited each vendor to documentation that came with the demo and/or find on the website. Nowhere does IBM note how to actually create a user-defined function. They go on and on about how to CALL them, but nothing about creation.

    I might also note that at the time I did the test DB2 on Linux was beta only AND more expensive than Oracle.
    ---
    Put Hemos through English 101!
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    http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
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  43. 32-bit memory limit by RelliK · · Score: 2

    I understand Oracle has been ported only to x86 Linux. But 32 bit architecture is quickly running out of steam. In fact, for large databases 4 gig memory space is nowhere near enough already. I wonder if they plan to port it to other platforms, such as Alpha or PPC. Insidentally, how well does Linux support 64-bit memory on these platforms? What about SMP on them?

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
    1. Re:32-bit memory limit by warmi · · Score: 1

      For this kind of database Linux is shity choice anyway ..

  44. Oracle's desperate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like Oracle is desperate for some good PR. They're taking a beating for backing out of the recent PC Magazine performance test.

    Seems like PC Mag wanted to do a fair comparison test of Oracle8i versus Microsoft's SQL Server by running the exact same test on the same hardware. Both sides originally said O.K., but then Oracle chickened out! Me thinks they got worried that they'd get trounced. We should try to get PC Mag to do it with MySQL.

    Anyhow, check out the article. It's pretty funny.

  45. Re:Wrong arguments? by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    Let's theorize that my DBA has left me... For the sake of this, we'll assume that my company uses DB2.

    I've now got two applicants in front of me... One has experience, and is even certified to develop, Oracle 8 databases. The other, says he's been developing in Postgres or MySQl. All other things being equal, I'll choose the Oracle admin any day.

    Why?

    Regardless as to how little you value certification, it means something. If nothing else, it means that the applicant is dedicated enough, or an ex-employer saw enough potential, to spring the money to get the certification (never mind the actual work involved).

    Second. In my mind, an Oracle DBA will have a much better mindset as to what's required in an enterprize than one whose experience lies soley in MySQL on Linux (or any other 32 bit platform). Why? Oracle is a corporate application. These people are used to meetings and structure. From what I've read here, Linux-ites are opposed to it.

    Oracle can SCALE. MySQL??? Even if it can address a 64 bit address space, can it really utilize it? How about optimizations? Oracle is supported on many platforms. By supported, I mean that I can call them in, shell out $$$, and they'll get the thing to work. MySQL? Oh. I get the source code. That's not the same as support in my book. If MySQL could scale, how come Slashdot only keeps my postings accessible for what 30 days?

    I've never seen benchmarks with MySQL or Postgres vs. Oracle. If Oracle would allow, I'd love to see the comparison. I'm sure you'd cringe, though, and say, "well, wait for the 3.2 kernel to come out. That doesn't cut it in my book."

    And yes, once you know the theory of RDBMs' you can probably get around in any of them. But do you trully know the specific one? NO. You may know a little about all of them, but there's nuances to be learned. That's why a Linux admin can't say they know Solaris (unless they do). Configurations are different - text files in different places, etc... You can get around in it, do the basic stuff, but to really shine, you'd need to buckle down and specialize.

    That's all in my opinion! :)

  46. No disgust intended by grappler · · Score: 2

    Maybe I shouldn't have put 'improvements' in quotes like that. I honestly don't care how many/few distros there are, or who makes them.

    I was just putting a prediction out there in case, in the unlikely case that I am right, I can say "I knew it" to nobody in particular.

    It just struck me as the type of thing Oracle would do. I am actually VERY happy every time some company moves away from windows toward Linux, not out of any particular wish to see Bill go down in flames, but because then the chances are just that much better that I will use Linux at work.

    I hate using windows at work. grrrrrrrrrrr....

    --
    Vidi, Vici, Veni
  47. http://www.msnbc.com/news/298088.asp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

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  48. Re:FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    rc.local...yuk.

    Get with the times and get with SysV.

    Whatever advantages FreeBSD has over Linux will be erased within a year.

  49. FreeBSD by BadlandZ · · Score: 2
    I hate to be "One of those FreeBSD nuts" but... I am running both Linux and FreeBSD lately (in addition to using some other commercial UNIX systems that will remain nameless), and I have really found that due to memory management, I much prefer FreeBSD for servers (well, that and the ease of remote administration using ports, giving the advantage of fast downloads without hunting, and compileing software optimized completely to my hardware with the right /etc/make.conf flags).

    Now, on workstations, I am still using Linux, because of the better avaliability of software. But, for something like Oracle, I would prefer a direct port to FreeBSD if I were to ever use it. Because of the fact that Oracle has the potential to use a lot of memory, FreeBSD may have an edge in better memory management (always lower memory usage, IMHO it does a more efficent job freeing up used memory while caching the important stuff).

  50. Definitions, two diffrent "ports" (not telnetable) by BadlandZ · · Score: 2

    Heh.. Port and ports. I mean a commercial binary of Oracle avaliable for FreeBSD when I mention a "direct port to FreeBSD," not to be confuzed with the FreeBSD ported software that can be compiled from "/usr/ports" (and also not to be confuzed with the type of port, like 80, that everyone is trying to telnet to for the crack.linuxppc.org thing).

  51. Free Speech, not Free Beer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    How many times must it be explained?

    Yes, you can sell me software; but it must include the source.

  52. So how do I port MFC database code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It took our DBA quite a while to get Oracle working. We had to switch from Slackware to Red Hat to get it to run, and install a particular version of gcc to get the demos to compile, but it's up. Now, does anyone know of a way to move code that uses MFC's CDatabase/CRecordset to run on Linux?

    1. Re:So how do I port MFC database code? by GypC · · Score: 1

      ummm... rewrite it?

    2. Re:So how do I port MFC database code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now if you said have a _year_, that might be enough time to rewrite it.

  53. Re:Larry Ellison is a sailor? by MrCreosote · · Score: 1

    You obviously weren't watching last year's Sydney to Hobart ocean racing classic.

    Several people died due to a large storm that ripped through the fleet. One of the crew on Sayonara (Ellison's boat) broke his leg (actually Oracle Australia's MD). Ellison said it was the worst he had ever sailed in, and at the time said he would never sail the race again.

    --
    MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
  54. This rocks! by FascDot+Killed+My+Pr · · Score: 1

    I just finished testing Oracle/Informix/DB2 on NT/Linux and Oracle on Linux is the only system that even finished. (sorry, can't release results--licensing issues)

    The only downside is that installing the Oracle ODBC drivers on a client is a 3 day procedure requiring a 84 MB download....


    ---
    Put Hemos through English 101!
    "An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein

    --
    Linux MAPI Server!
    http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
    (Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
    1. Re:This rocks! by FigWig · · Score: 1

      What, no Sybase???

      --
      Scuttlemonkey is a troll
    2. Re:This rocks! by FascDot+Killed+My+Pr · · Score: 1

      SQL Server (both Sybase and MS) were on my list. MS got dropped because they don't do user-defined functions like I want. Sybase got dropped because I couldn't ANY information on their website. No pricing, no trial software, no docs--nothing.
      ---
      Put Hemos through English 101!
      "An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein

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    3. Re:This rocks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm... around the time of the first MindCraft report, someone in France, I think, actually did print out their benchmark tests of Oracle 8.0.5 vs. SQL Server 7.0, on equivalent hardware. I printed it out before it disappeared. Oracle smoked SQL Server. But, of course, that site was up for less than a day (it was Slashdotted and Ceased-and-desisted, I assume)... Too bad someone doesn't have the money to put together a TerraServer equivalent running on Oracle, with it running on Intel hardware and LInux a plus. For those who run terabyte-sized DBs, is TerraServer really a fair demonstration of a huge database, seeing as how all those satellite pictures are static, for one, all the same sizes, for another, etc., when real-world data is not "shaped" or "packaged" in such neat, regular blobs?

    4. Re:This rocks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well if you manage to do a test where DB/2 for Linux or NT did not finish I would be seriously intrested in knowming more. I am sure its comforting to hide behind "licencing issues". Having dealt with several DBMS's including Oracles current flagship and DB/2 on various plattforms. I find it very difficult to believe your statement, unless the test you ran was specifically tailored by Larry himself. For all we know, you might be Larry. I think if you took the time to learn all the system you mention, and a few you dont. You would be able to have them all finish. DB/2 is quite possibly the best and most stable DBMS in existence. Oracle might be fast but it aint DB/2.

    5. Re:This rocks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uh well db2 on mainframe is not the same as db2 on unix. and then db2 on mainframe does not have half of the features... it ain't all that either...

  55. Wrong arguments? by zmooc · · Score: 1

    The article says their main reason for porting Oracle to Linux would be to outflank MS. I don't believe that - I think they're just doing it because they think they can make money with it. They just don't want to loose customers to MySQL/Linux.

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
    1. Re:Wrong arguments? by zmooc · · Score: 1

      Maybe I should have said "any random DB running on Linux" instead of MySQL/Linux. My point was that they'd be doing this in the first place because they can make money with it. I don't think that screwing MS is very interesting for them :) And that is what the article implicated.

      --
      0x or or snor perron?!
    2. Re:Wrong arguments? by warmi · · Score: 1

      Even more realistically, they would lose clients to Sybase which is much better than PostgreSQL ( and free for deployment )

    3. Re:Wrong arguments? by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

      Actually, they probably couldn't care less about people migrating to MySQL, because everyone WILL come crawling back to them, that is, if their business didn't fold during the process.... And if they managed and everything was fine - they probably didn't need oracle in the first place, hence their too small scale and probably won't have the $$$ they'ed like to see from customers. That's my hunch. Slash runs MySQL - it works for this... but you'd be crazy to deploy an enterprise wide solution on MySQL... #1 where are all the skilled admins? Yes, there are a few, but compared to people who know Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Informix, etc?

    4. Re:Wrong arguments? by aj_seigo · · Score: 1

      they won't be losing many clients to MySQL as MySQL lacks so many features necessary to serious database development. These include stored functions and triggers, subqueries and transactions, without which MySQL is all but useless for anything more sophisticated than simple applications.

      More realistically, they would lose clients to PostgreSQL. I know I've worked on a few projects now where Postgres was chosen over Oracle. The new version of Postgres is fast, dependable and has many of the features required for serious database work. And with 6.5 it's even quick.

      It still lacks a few things and the PL/SQL language is a little quirky at times... there are a few minor bugs... but its very usable and very robust. And its opensource and free.

      In fact, Sys Admin mag used Oracle and Postgres as the only two databases in its PERL database connectivity article last month.

  56. Oracle distribution would be great by eries · · Score: 1

    I think this would be a great move for Oracle. I've been trying for days to get Oracle 8i installed on my pretty vanilla RH6 SMP box. Sure each of the little problems I've come up against are soluble, but I think many businesses would pay big bucks for a distro that let you use Oracle out of the box w/o and kernel recompiling, etc.

    Of course, then we'll all have to start supporting the Oracle Package Manager :)

  57. PostgreSQL by FigWig · · Score: 1

    Everyone help develop PostgreSQL!!! Screw the overpriced, underperforming Oracle!!! Viva La ORDBMS!!!

    www.postgresql.org

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    Scuttlemonkey is a troll
  58. Re:Larry Ellison is a buisnessman? by mistabobdobalina · · Score: 1

    heh...okay so who's crazier, ellison or balmer?

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    -- your knees hurt, don't they?
  59. it's time to move on to MORE LINUX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go Oracle !

  60. Re:SLASHDOT SUCKS ASS by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    Or upgrade to Oracle ;)