Linux Gets Boost From Dell, Oracle

Forbes.com ^ | 06.05.02, 3:00 PM ET | Lisa DiCarlo

[Redcloak]

Operating Systems
Linux Gets Boost From Dell, Oracle
Lisa DiCarlo, 06.05.02, 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK - In yet another strong show of support for the Linux operating system, market leaders Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ), Dell Computer (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ) and Red Hat Software (nasdaq: RHAT - news - people ) today combined strengths to make the software more reliable, higher performance and easier to buy.

For the first time, Dell will resell licenses for Oracle's 9i database and application server software for Red Hat Linux. That lets customers avoid having to buy from two companies, and is a strong show of support of Linux from Dell, which made its fortune as a purveyor of Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Windows systems.

The trio is also developing more reliable Linux products for Dell's storage systems, which are actually made by EMC (nyse: EMC - news - people ). The big improvement here is that Oracle and Red Hat are developing so-called "clustering" technology for Dell servers. Typically the domain of traditional Unix, clustering is a complex way to get higher performance from a smaller number of server computers.

Oracle and Dell are both seeing growth in their Linux businesses. A Dell spokeswoman says the company expects to ship 12% "or better" of its servers with factory-installed Linux this year, up from 8% to 10% last year. International Data Group expects market revenue for Linux-based relational databases, which is what Oracle sells, to surpass Unix-based relational databases by 2006, to $6 billion.

Oracle doesn't break out product sales by platform but the company says the demand for Linux is high. A spokesperson cites its online developer network, which had 370,000 downloads of Linux-related software in the last year.

The deal is also an important win for Red Hat, which appears to be under fire from the rest of the Linux distributors. Last week, several Linux companies said they would collaborate on "standard" Linux software and distribution. Red Hat, the biggest Linux distributor, was not part of the alliance. Today's news boosted Red Hat shares nominally to $4.89 in early afternoon trading.

Linux is gaining steam everywhere but especially on Wall Street, where some information technology executives say they are demanding that their technology providers have a comprehensive Linux strategy. Microsoft is the only major technology company without one. Can it hold out forever?

[dheretic]

Fine. You want to play that game. Windows is just a kernel, too. So I can reasonably say, by your definition, that bugs in IE and IIS are simply middleware bugs that have nothing to do with the OS.

Do you ever know what a kernel is?

[dheretic]

Explorer is the equivalent of KFM and KDE's Window Manager

[ChadGore]

LINUX: The Ultimate Windows Service Pack.

[Bush2000]

Do you ever know what a kernel is?

Absolutely. I used to write kernel-level code all the time. Do you want an honest debate -- or are you going to split hairs?

[dheretic]

I wouldn't have an issue with what you're saying if you would stop saying that Windows is just a kernel or that Linux is more than a kernel. Saying that Linux is a whole OS is like saying that an engine is an entire car.

[cinFLA]

NT, Windows 2K and Windows XP are an attempt to evolve MS Windows from the old MS-DOS

Hampered by the original decision by IBM that nobody would ever want more than 640k of RAM.

[chilepepper]

The problem with AppleOSX is that it is really OpenBSD.

The problem with OpenBSD is that it does not have as many partisans (read, *really* good geeks working on neat applications). No doubt Apple will port a number of really cool applications to OpenBSD but it will, in the end, suffer the same fate as the PPC Linux versions for Apple hardware: its releases will lag the main PC platform Linux releases...

the new stuff will generally show up on the PC platform versions of Linux FIRST. Those applications that DON'T show up on the PC linux first will be ported or cloned soon enough.

Bottom line: since the PC platform stuff is SO, SO much cheaper than the Apple stuff, and the software is CLOSE ENOUGH, Apple will have a marketshare problem and be stuck as an also ran.

What makes Apple stand out is Apple software you can't get on the PC platform on software, and software that doesn't play well together on the PC platform.

I wish them luck in making the transition to OpenSource: it is NOT at ALL an easy road for a computer maker...

[Bush2000]

I wouldn't have an issue with what you're saying if you would stop saying that Windows is just a kernel or that Linux is more than a kernel. Saying that Linux is a whole OS is like saying that an engine is an entire car.

That's the basic issue here: What comprises an OS. And, likewise, I wouldn't have any problem defining Linux merely as a kernel if Linux advocates weren't so disingenuous in insisting that IIS, IE, and Office are flaws in Windows. Under the terms you've described, there have been very few hacks to the Windows and Linux kernels.

[Bush2000]

Bottom line: since the PC platform stuff is SO, SO much cheaper than the Apple stuff, and the software is CLOSE ENOUGH, Apple will have a marketshare problem and be stuck as an also ran.

The Apple partisans will take issue with this statement but there's no disputing the fact that you and I can upgrade our boxes for a couple hundred dollars and have a new motherboard and CPU.

[The KG9 Kid]

I wish you'd have been here a few months ago when a Apple guy was insisting that OSX was 100% 'Open Source'.

There's a lot of BSD that got stripped out of OSX, but I think it's fair to look at OSX as if it were Apple's proprietary UNIX.

BSD, and NeXT too.

Best thing about OSX right now is Microsoft OfficeX. Man, is it nice.

[dheretic]

I don't recall PC users being able to do the equivalent of bumping a system from a single G3 300 to a Dual G4 500 without scrapping the mobo.

[dheretic]

soon you will have a nice, neat port of OpenOffice 1.0.

[Campion]

That's the basic issue here: What comprises an OS.

At one time, wasn't it the Official Microsoft Legal Position ([tm] [all rights reserved] [click "accept" on the EULA before reading]) that IE was part of the operating system and couldn't be untangled from it without ... I dunno ... breaking the intergalactic disgronificator module, or something?

[Bush2000]

I think their position was that it couldn't be removed, not that it was a part of the kernel.

[The KG9 Kid]

I'm lots more interested in OpenBeOS, if you can provide me an FTP link to the installable binaries. I was running BeOS feverishly for months until the whole BeOS scene croaked. I still have the installable MS Windows installer for it on a MO drive around here somewhere.

How mature is it? Did they just pick up where the old one left off? Last time I used it, they were porting Mozilla over to it, and the WWW looked like crap. BeOS's own browser was lots better.

[Bush2000]

I don't recall PC users being able to do the equivalent of bumping a system from a single G3 300 to a Dual G4 500 without scrapping the mobo.

Get real. I can buy a dual proc motherboard and only put a single CPU in it. And then upgrade the processors at a later date.

[The KG9 Kid]

www.beos.com doesn't resolve to anything.

[rdb3]

4. There's nothing that a Linux PC can do that a Sun system can't do better -- even though it may cost a little more.

Hmmm... Let's see.

Redhat 7.3 or Solaris 8?

Redhat 7.3! Solaris? Only as the platform for a Sun box, not an Intel one.

[The KG9 Kid]

OpenBeOS Programming Teams Status Overview

Programming Teams Status Overview Last Updated On:  4 Jun 2002
		Planning			Pre-alpha			Alpha			Beta			Stable			Mature
Kernel
App / Interface Kit
BFS
Game Kit
Input Kit
Media Kit
MIDI Kit
Networking
Preferences
Printing
ScreenSaver Kit
Storage Kit
Translation Kit
Ugh, this is gonna take until Q2 2003. Wake me when it's done.

[rdb3]

I can assure you, I wouldn't be using it if I had to deal with the product activation $hit that off the shelf copies have.

Believe it or not, this has been cracked wide open. I'm not talking about using a corporate license which doesn't need activation. I'm talking about C-R-A-C-K-E-D! And used C# to do it on VS .NET!

I couldn't believe my eyes.

The culprits? Oh, just a couple of worthless "dorm-room-operating-system-using" Linux guys. ;-)