Dell Catches HP Blade Runner

Bang, bang—I am the warrior," purred the Puss, Patty Smyth-like, when he heard that Oaklands Golden State Warriors Arena now will be known as the Oracle Arena. The Kittys song was more an ode to Oracle head honcho Larry Ellison, though, than it was to the Warriors NBA team. Sure, thought El Gato, the $30 million, 10-year arena-naming agreement was impressive, but Larrys Red Hat support "team" announcement was even more impressive. Oracles elbowing its way into Red Hats Linux support biz with its Oracle Unbreakable Linux campaign proves beyond a doubt Larry has memorized every word of "The Art of War, the battle-tactic bible written by Chinese general Sun Tzu in the sixth century B.C. "I guess the rumor that Oracle was planning an Ubuntu Linux-based release was a dud," said a fellow Oracle OpenWorld attendee to the Furry One. "True," replied the Furball, who decided to flee Frisco and hop the next flight back to Beantown.

His Hirsuteness tossed back a few on the plane with a Texas techie who joked that Dell is upholding its pledge to upgrade its support services beyond the desktop: Michael Dells MSD Capital investment company recently grabbed a majority ownership interest in a landscaping and maintenance outfit based in the San Fernando Valley. Although details of the transaction havent been disclosed, Dell now has a majority interest in ValleyCrest Companies, a national landscaping company with 8,500 employees and reportedly more than $800 million in revenues. "Well, maybe now if the Dell support tech cant help you with your computer, theyll at least send somebody over to prune your hedges," laughed the Lynx.

Spences Smirnoff-swilling seat mate also said hed heard that Hewlett-Packard VP and blade maven Rick Becker has jumped ship and signed on with Dell. "I guess Dells betting on its blade server biz to bend it like Becker," tittered the tipsy Tabby. The Furball briefly flashed back to Michael Dells and Advanced Micro Devices bigwig Hector Ruizs lovey-dovey announcement that new Opteron-powered PowerEdge servers were on the way and figured Becker was part of a bigger strategy to help Dell take on Big Blue, Sun Microsystems and HP in the blade market.

Once home, Spence got a call from a crony who asked if hed heard about Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales post on the Wikipedia mailing list asking open-source folks which copyrights theyd buy to set free to public domain if they had $100 million. "Thats easy, Id buy The Beatles songs—just to take them away from Michael Jackson," said Spence. In his post, Wales said he was posed the question by someone who could fund such a dream.

The pal also asked if Spence had heard about the "Fantasy Congress" game, at fantasycongress.us/fc.

Started by some California college students, the fantasy- football-like game hopes to boost kids interest in politics. "Weve already seen what happens when congressmen fantasize about youngsters. Do we really want kids fantasizing about congressmen?" quipped the Kitty.

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And dont forget me at go.eweek.com/kattoon

Spill your guts at spencer_katt@ziffdavis.com, or give the Katt a howl at 781-938-2627.