Opinion: It's becoming clear that Oracle's Unbreakable Linux isn't so much a product as it is an attempt to undercut Red Hat. (Linux-Watch)Following my
recent article in which I wrote that neither I, nor several financial analysis firms, were aware of any companies that were planning to deploy Oracle's Unbreakable Linux, a handful of companies have told me that they are giving Unbreakable Linux a try.
What I think is interesting is why they're giving it a try, and what it tells us about Oracle's intentions toward Red Hat.
First, none of these companies were willing to go on the record with their names. Why? They didn't want their names used because none of them wanted to get into trouble with Oracle.
And, since all but one were Oracle customers, it's easy to see why they wouldn't want to get on Larry Ellison's bad side.
Click here to read more about how the Linux community has been reacting to Oracle's Unbreakable Linux move.
The reason that most of them are trying Unbreakable Linux is that Oracle was offering an additional 50 percent discount—on top of the original 50 percent discount to RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) customers—to users who subscribed to the new operating system by Jan. 28.
At this price, as several of the customers said, there's no way that Oracle will break even on Unbreakable Linux sales. Oracle was also keeping this double-discount hush-hush. Not all customers or analysts knew that Oracle was being this aggressive with pricing.
Read the full story on Linux-Watch: The Real Point of Unbreakable Linux: Breaking Red Hat
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