| IBM isn't opposed to Oracle Linux |
Mar. 02, 2007
Recent news stories have stated that IBM was refusing to support Oracle Linux. That's not true. Further investigation has shown there was little follow-up on the original Reuters story, and that some of the confusion came because the story didn't put IBM's comments into the proper context.
Starting in October, Oracle began shipping its own Oracle Enterprise Linux. This new Linux is an almost perfect clone of Red Hat Inc.'s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Despite Oracle's efforts to win users over to its operating system offering, it has made little progress in getting corporate customers to commit to it.
It is true that IBM spokesman Matthew McMahon said that IBM was not ready to guarantee that its computer programs, such as WebSphere, are compatible with Oracle Enterprise Linux. Further, that if such programs did turn out to be incompatible, it would be up to Oracle to resolve the issue. And, of course, if Oracle does get traction in the marketplace, and IBM's clients want it, then, IBM will support it.
Lisa Lanspery, IBM's media relations director for infrastructure management, explained, though, that IBM will work with Oracle to support its offerings on Linux. What IBM hasn't done is "certify" its applications to run on Oracle Linux.
For all practical purposes, IBM expects its applications to run on Oracle Linux just as they would run on RHEL. No surprise there. The problem, therefore, isn't really one of technical support or IBM not supporting Oracle. The problem is that Oracle will have a harder time selling its Linux to corporate customers who insist that an IBM/Oracle software stack has to be certified from top to bottom.
It appears that Oracle will have to convince IBM that it's worth Big Blue's time to bless Oracle's so-called "Unbreakable Linux." As proof of this, you could look at the recent deal between the two, to provide broader support for Oracle applications running on Linux on IBM's System z mainframes.
This new agreement brings Oracle database software and such Oracle applications as EBusiness Suite for Linux, Peoplesoft on Linux, and Siebel on Linux, to the System z. What it didn't bring, however, was Unbreakable Linux. Instead, as per usual, IBM will only support Novell's SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Red Hat's RHEL.
It's not, according to Lanspery, that IBM objects to supporting another Linux or believes that Unbreakable Linux would be difficult to support. That's not at all the case. But, like with any other operating system, IBM needs to see customers asking for it, before the company is willing to start formally supporting another operating system.
This situation is not unique to IBM. For example, Unisys recently expanded its partnership with Oracle. In this deal, Unisys will be supporting a whole range of Oracle applications on its ES7000/one high-end servers on Linux... but not Unbreakable Linux.
It's really up to Oracle, and its customers, to create a demand for Unbreakable Linux. Come that day, IBM, Unisys, and other companies will be perfectly happy to support it. But, that day has not come yet.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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