Oracle, Microsoft Linux Announcements Not Yet Being Felt

from the validating-the-space dept

Tue, Feb 13th 2007 5:36pm — Joseph Weisenthal

Last fall, the Linux market seemed headed for a major shakeup, as within a few days of each other, both Oracle and Microsoft announced plans to get into the space. Oracle's strategy was to offer support for Red Hat Linux at a cut-rate price, while Microsoft partnered with Novell to co-market their offerings on a limited basis. While Red Hat investors fretted about the increased competition, the company put on a brave face, and brought out the old saw about increased competition being validation for the Linux market. Although it's still early in the game, it seems that Red Hat may have been justified in its optimism. A couple of new Wall Street analyst reports have noted that neither Oracle nor Microsoft has had any significant impact on the market. Oracle has yet to announce any major customer wins, while Microsoft claims that one customer -- Wal-Mart -- has bought into the partnership. In both cases, the companies certainly have more business than they're publicly announcing, but it does seem that the doomsday scenarios that many envisioned are not yet playing out.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Craig, 13 Feb 2007 @ 6:04pm

Wait for Oracle 11g
Oracle may well win over new customers when their new database version ships. The motivation behind Oracle's entry into the Linux space was to encourage customers to adopt Oracle RAC technology. Once 11g ships, customers may move to adopt Oracle Linux as a part of their database upgrade strategy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 13 Feb 2007 @ 6:34pm

Didn't Red Hat go out of business?
Or are they still bumbling along like SGI?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 13 Feb 2007 @ 7:24pm

Red Hat doing well
<http://quote.morningstar.com/Quote/Quote.aspx?Ticker=RHT>
Look at their 5-year graph, and how well that compares, to, say,Microsoft <http://quote.morningstar.com/Quote/Quote.aspx?Ticker=MSFT>.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
iNsOmNiAc4104, 13 Feb 2007 @ 7:33pm

As vista ticks off more and more users with its Is this Ok? crap and more flaws found in its nasty drm or as more people feel violated when they cant play legit purchased content it will only be a matter of time until they get fed up with M$ and look for alternatives. Hopefully they will look at the stars and see Tux smiling down :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
me, 13 Feb 2007 @ 9:12pm

Re:
Well said!

I know I'm forced to used windows for some of the apps I need but more and more I find myself on my laptop enjoying the versatility and open doors of linux.

Last night I finally got XGL/Beryl on it too. A bit of work finding the right tutorial, but it definitely can hold it's own against vista in terms of visually effects and productivity.

And it doesn't ask me if I'm sure it's okay to move my mouse to the left.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cyb3rj, 14 Feb 2007 @ 6:16am

Re: Wait for Oracle 11g
I'm not so sure about that. Changing a server OS or justifying a new box to host a new OS is a pretty large untertaking for many IT departments. I think Oracle's move here is token and will win a small percentage of people. In the least, I think this helps underscore that Oracle will run on RHEL for the foreseeable future.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cyb3rj, 14 Feb 2007 @ 6:18am

Re: iNsOmNiAc4104's comment
I'm already planning the commitment move to Linux. Microsoft has lost me as a direct customer. I'll have to use it for work, and that's where it's going to stay.

Ubuntu is anyone is curious. I did a 5.x to 6.x upgrade and was completely blown away by the ease of the upgrade. It isn't (I hate to say this) quite like Windows Update (yet), but it's really good for a community project.
[ link to this | view in thread ]