Red Hat vs. Oracle Linux Support: When and How Does It Matter?

ID Number: G00169722

20 July 2009

George J. Weiss

Clients can and should negotiate with Oracle and Red Hat to achieve the best Linux support price. However, there are risks that clients must weigh when considering their options.

Price: US$495.00

Pages: 8

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Table of Contents

Analysis

1.0		Why is Red Hat the wide Linux market share leader?
2.0		What alternatives are available to Red Hat support for RHEL-certified applications?
3.0		What is the risk in a fork of Linux code?
4.0		Isn't OEL a fork?
5.0		If Red Hat doesn't take Oracle patches for RHEL, or Red Hat's and the kernel community's fixes are different, are we at risk in maintaining a forked version of Linux?
6.0		Are all applications running on RHEL, by definition, certified for OEL?
7.0		How does Oracle contractual terms and conditions compare to Red Hat?
8.0		Can Oracle be used to support some, but not all, servers in a mixed Oracle and Red Hat shop?
9.0		What impact, if any, will the Oracle acquisition of Sun have on Red Hat?

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