“Compare this to, say, Oracle 10g. The installer checks the contents of /etc/redhat-release and looks for a certain version. As such, it will happily install on RedHat ES4, but not on CentOS4, which is exactly the same thing with just RedHat’s images removed. To make Oracle install you have to edit the /etc/redhat-release file by hand and make it look like RHES. After Oracle is installed, you have to change it back. But it installs and runs just fine. Dumb.”
Actually this is quite intentional.. Oracle is trying to limit what OS you get support on. That is what I was talking about when I said a properly configured app *can* install anywhere. Oracle can save their support requirements
Oracle is welcome to state that it will only support certain versions. That's a licensing issue and they don't need to be expending support resources to try to figure out why a database keeps crashing on a Gentoo box.
That's a support issue. That doesn't mean they have to try to make it difficult to install on other-than-officially-supported distros.
As I said, since Linux is pretty much Linux, such attempts are dumb, since a knowledgeable sysadmin can MAKE it work with a lot of skull sweat. As a sysadmin, I have better things to do with my time than try to figure out what little idiotic system check I have to defeat to get my test database (about which I have no intention of calling Oracle for support) to install on CentOS.
The production servers, running RedHat, those are fully supported. The test servers are not. That's fine. But having to hold your tongue just right and wait for the right phase of the moon to install an app on what is basically exactly the same OS is just an irritation. It serves no useful purpose except to make the sysadmin's life difficult.