The CEO of database firm Oracle has said that the company may look to launch its own Linux distribution, or even acquire an existing one.
CEO Larry Ellison told the Financial Times that the company was looking to offer a complete software stack, including middleware like its database, but to complete the stack, they'd need an operating system. "You could argue that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at distributing and supporting Linux," Ellison told the FT.
Rather than developing a new distribution in-house, if the company decides to ship a distro it may follow the acquisition of an existing creator. According to Reuters Ellison said the company had considered acquiring Novell Inc. A move such as this would put Oracle's OS in competition with both Microsoft Windows and other Linux distros, including Red Hat Enterprise Edition.
However, some believe that Ellison's comments may simply have been a warning that Oracle may have to become more aggressive in the Linux market, following Red Hat acquiring JBoss, a firm whose products compete with those of Orcale. Of course, Oracle hasn't been standing still, recently buying Sleepycat, a maker of open-source database software.
Will the deals and acquisitions continue at the enterprise end of open-source?
More info at Reuters.
