Linux

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Linux is a free open-source operating system based on Unix. Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers from around the globe. Linux was developed under the GNU General Public License and the source code is freely available to everyone.

Support history[edit]

Previously, is was a big issue to get Oracle running on Linux. A couple of people reported that it was possible, but not totally seamless, to install the SCO UNIX versions of the Oracle 7 RDBMS on Linux. However, Oracle did not support such configurations.

Oracle first released their Oracle 8, Oracle 8i and Application Server software on the Linux Intel platform after some major database vendors like Sybase and Informix reported that they will release their database software on Linux.

Today, Linux is a tier-1 platform with products and patches released on Linux before other platforms.

Supported distributions[edit]

Oracle supports its products on the following Linux distributions:

Although not officially supported, Oracle's software does run on most other Linux flavors, but needs to be installed with the "-ignoreSysPrereqs" flag.

Oracle products supported on Linux[edit]

Oracle ships the following products on Linux:

Note that Oracle for Linux is a commercial product - and is not free like Linux.

Linux pros and cons[edit]

Here is a list of some pros and cons for Linux:

Pros:

  • Very stable platform - great uptime
  • Free with source code
  • Great support
  • Lots of good applications (not great ones)
  • Multi-user support
  • Application side effects well contained (unlike with windows where any application can crash the system)
  • Good Java Support

Cons:

  • Lack of great applications
  • Can be difficult to install

Also see[edit]

External links[edit]

Linux Distros:

  • Red Hat Linux - Download and support for Red Hat Linux - One of Oracle's Preferred Linux Vendors
  • SuSE - Download and support for SuSE - One of Oracle's Preferred Linux Vendors
  • SuSE-Oracle Mailing List: Subscribe by sending an empty message to suse-oracle-subscribe@suse.com
  • Mandriva Linux - Download and support for Mandriva (Mandrake) Linux
  • Ubuntu Linux - Download and support for Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux
  • TurboLinux - Download and support for TurboLinux

Other interesting links: