The Red Hat Enterprise Linux

advantages over Oracle Linux

1
RED HAT CONTINUES TO LEAD THE
LINUX MARKET
WORLDWIDE LINUX SERVER OPERATING ENVIRONMENT NEW LICENSE PAID
SHIPMENTS/SUBSCRIPTIONS AND NONPAID DEPLOYMENTS BY VENDOR, 2008–2012 (000)

Source:Worldwide Linux Client and Server Operating Environments Market Analysis and 2013-2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares: 3rd
Platform Transitions Take Hold (IDC #242635, August 2013)

2
TOP KERNEL CORPORATE CONTRIBUTORS
IN 2012

Source: The Linux Foundation, Linux Kernel Development; How Fast it is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It, September 2013

* the developers who are 'known to be doing this work on their own, with no financial contribution happening from any company' are not grouped together as 'None'
and instead are considered part of the 'long tail,' as are contributors of academic or unknown sponsorship.

3
Oracle’s Linux offerings
Oracle Linux (formerly Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL)
●
Derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources (origin unknown)
●
Ships with 2 different kernels
●
Oracle named “Red Hat Compatible” kernel
●
Claimed to be functionally equivalent to RHEL kernel, not tested or
certified by Red Hat or Oracle for RHEL compatibility
●
The “Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel” (UEK) for Linux
●
The default non-Red Hat Compatible kernel created by Oracle
●
Contains Oracle-only code not accepted by the upstream open source
community

Oracle Linux Support (formerly Oracle Unbreakable Linux or OUL)

●
Oracle's support program for Oracle Linux (OL)
●
Claims to offer support for instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

4
RHEL: Ten years of kernel stability and support
OL & UEK: 27-month supported kernel lifetime
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (Kernel 2.6.32 )
Supported kernel lifetime 10 years 2020
6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.x 6.x 6.x 6.x 6.x

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

OL6
OL - UEK1
- UEK1
Kernel 2.6.32
Kernel 2.6.32
Supported
kernel lifetime:
22 months

OL - UEK2
Kernel 3.0.36
Supported
kernel lifetime:
27 months
(estimated)
OL6 - UEK3
Kernel 3.8.13
Supported
kernel lifetime:
27 months
(estimated)

5
Plan for stability with documented interfaces

Red Hat documents reliable interfaces

for the life of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
major releases.

Where is the Oracle Linux equivalent ?

6
 Key points of differentiation
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Oracle Linux
● Developed collaboratively with the Linux ● Based on publicly available RHEL sources

community and partners ● Claims RHEL compatibility but no testing to

● Built on community-accepted and -supported validate

open source code ● Includes non-GPL code (dtrace & ksplice)

●
>62% share of the paid Linux market1 ●
<3% share of paid Linux market1
● >1000 ISV partners ●
<100 total ISV, IHV, and SI partners2
● New version releases average every 2.5-3 ● Dependent on Red Hat source, released
years, with updates every 6-8 months only after recompilation and redistribution
● Certified for use on all major x86 hardware ● Vendor-certified for use on some HP, Dell,
vendors including: HP, Dell, IBM, Fujitsu, and Oracle servers; OL with “Red Hat-
Intel, AMD and Oracle compatible” version not certified by IBM for
● Variants available for IBM-z, IBM POWER use on IBM x86 servers
systems ● x86 only

● Certified and supported guest on VMware ● Supported but not certified by Oracle as a
and Hyper-V guest on VMware
● Red Hat is the leading commercial ● Oracle makes minimal contributions to Linux
contributor to the Linux community: sign-off kernel, specific to Oracle hardware and
authority for >37% of Linux kernel applications

71 IDC doc 236064; Worldwide Linux Client & Server Operating Environments 2012-2016
2 Based upon information from company's public website as of May 2011
 Support: Red Hat vs Oracle

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Oracle Linux support plan

subscription
● 10-year life cycle support for major releases ● <3-year life cycle for UEK
● EUS subscription to enable additional year of ● EUS support not available; users must upgrade

support on minor releases to next minor release to continue to receive bug

fixes
● Published list of supported APIs across ● No published supported APIs
major and minor releases ● Right to discontinue support for features or

releases at any time

● Support staff has direct access to Red Hat ● Support staff has no access to Red Hat
engineering engineering
● Subscribers have access to Red Hat ● OL customers cannot escalate requests to Red
engineering Hat Engineering
● Access to complete road map available to ● Complete OL road map unavailable since RHEL
subscribers for strategic product direction road map unavailable to Oracle

Continued...

8
 Support: Red Hat vs Oracle

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Oracle Linux support plan

subscription
● Subscribers participate in feature requests ● Limited customer ability to drive new features
and product direction and functions into the OS
● Delivers Red Hat authored, signed, and ● OL binaries based on RHEL sources; delivery

tested binaries and eventually delivers RHEL delayed while Oracle rebuilds
sources
● Collaborative engineering relationships with ● Competitive relationship with other hardware
hardware providers vendors

9
 Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
Red Hat vs. Oracle

Red Hat Oracle

Third party hardware issues ● In order to claim that patches and updates
● Red Hat identifies and resolves driver delivered by Oracle are built from the same code
and other hardware interaction issues as RHEL, Oracle would have to wait for a Red Hat
● Red Hat submits the resolution
patch to become available and then rebuild and
upstream redistribute it.
● Working with Red Hat ISVs to fix bugs in Red Hat
Enterprise Linux or RHEL-certified applications
Third party software issues would be less likely than Oracle waiting for Red
● Red Hat works with the customer’s ISV Hat to issue a patch.
to resolve Red Hat Enterprise Linux ● If resolution requires an OS upgrade, the user
issues and either issues a patch or must convert to Oracle, or try an older version of
advises the ISV engineers the application, as Oracle is not authorized to and
doesn't deliver Red Hat Enterprise Linux minor or
major releases.
● Oracle patches applied to Red Hat Enterprise
Linux may invalidate the hardware and software
support policies of those vendors, and will
invalidate security certifications.
1 And our authorized business partners
10
10 questions for which customers should ask
Oracle for a written response
1. Red Hat has engineering and support relationships with HP and IBM to ensure that Red Hat
Enterprise Linux performs well and reliably on those vendors’ platforms. Does Oracle have
the same level of relationship to ensure that Oracle Linux works as well and has full support
on IBM and HP server hardware?

2. How can Oracle claim 100% binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux even if they
have no copies of the OS running in-house and they don't do any compatibility testing?

3. The Oracle Linux FAQ states that Oracle takes source code that Red Hat makes publicly
available. What is the site they use to obtain Red Hat source code?

4. Doesn't Oracle have to wait for Red Hat to fix a bug in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and make
the source code available to the public before Oracle can rebuild and redistribute it? How
long does that take?

5. Are there cases when this delay has been or can be many weeks?

11
10 questions for which customers should ask
Oracle for a written response (cont’d)
6. Under what circumstances would I be required to purchase both a Red Hat Enteprise Linux
subscription and an Oracle Linux subscription for my RHEL server?

7. Can Oracle guarantee that all of my Red Hat Enterprise Linux certified applications and
hardware will be supported by their respective vendors after I switch to Oracle Linux?

8. Will I be able to continue leveraging my investment in Red Hat Satellite Server for Oracle
Linux deployments?

9. Does Oracle provide us with the same Extended Update Support that Red Hat provides for
its minor releases?

10. Can Oracle provide me with a complete road map for Oracle Linux?

12
 Beyond the bits:
A Red Hat Enterprise Linux
subscription

13
 KNOWLEDGEBASE
SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
CUSTOMER PORTAL
& FORUMS

HARDWARE & SOFTWARE

CERTIFICATION

SOFTWARE ASSURANCE

GLOBAL SUPPORT SERVICES


UNLIMITED
 24/7
 MULTI-LINGUAL
AWARD-WINNING SUPPORT

MISSION-CRITICAL
 MULTI-VENDOR CASE
OWNERSHIP

STABILITY WITH PRODUCT LIFECYCLE

OF UP TO 10 YEARS

UPDATES, PATCHES & UPGRADES

SECURITY RESPONSE TEAM

OPTIONAL TRAINING CURRICULA AVAILABLE

We came to the decision that Red Hat would be better for our environment because the support we
received from Red Hat was outstanding… —DAVE DIPIAZZA, Manager, Internet services
Product documentation
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/

15
Knowledgebase

16
Reference architectures, tech briefs, videos, and
webinars

17
Reference architectures, tech briefs, videos, and
webinars

18
Online user groups

19
Production support Service Level Agreement

20
Severity level definitions

21
 Questions?

22