Oracle Pledges Linux Everywhere

SAN FRANCISCO—Following its pledge at last years LinuxWorld to develop all of its products for Linux, Oracle Corp. will now actually develop future products using the Linux operating system, an Oracle executive said Wednesday.

Last year at the LinuxWorld show here, Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison pledged to run the companys entire business on the Linux operating system.

“Its not a will anymore; we actually do,” said Chuck Rozwat, executive vice president of database server technologies at Oracle on Wednesday, who added that the company remains committed to ensuring all of Oracles products run on Linux.

To follow up, Rozwat said the company now plans to take its love for Linux a step further. “Id like to make a commitment of my own, which is equally a sign for us,” Rozwat said. “Were now committed to running basic development platforms on Linux for all of our products.”

That commitment will affect a sizable chunk of Oracles workforce, as an estimated total of 7,000 workers and their client PCs across 30 locations are used to develop Oracles databases and other applications.

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Like Sun Microsystems Inc.s Jonathan Schwartz, Oracles Rozwat said there is no longer any need to pay Microsoft Corp. for a combination desktop OS/office suite package. A combination of Linux plus Oracles Collaboration Suite groupware on Linux offers all of the functionality that Windows and Office offer, he said. Oracles Collaboration Suite is only certified for Red Hat Application Server 2.1 and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7, according to developers on an Oracle mailing list.

Rozwat also announced the Oracle Open Source Development Center, part of the Oracle Technology Network. The network will contain sample code, tutorials on Linux and surrounding technologies, all for free. Rozwat and his assistants also showed off the functionality of the companys JDeveloper toolkit running atop Red Hat Linux.