What is this!!

[joseluismantilla]

Hi guys!!, i am angry with this http://linux.oracle.com/switch/centos/

Oracle Spreading FUD about CentOS

I was quite surprised to see Oracle has a new page up, encouraging people to switch from CentOS to Oracle Linux.

For those that aren’t aware, CentOS is a completely free re-build of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It’s a distribution our customers use a lot, both with our own CentOS 6 AMIs and on bare metal.

On the face of it the Oracle switch from CentOS page seems pretty benign - re-assurance that it’s really free, even some self-deprecating humour about Oracle.

Then I saw the graph, which purports to show how much quicker Oracle security updates are released than CentOS.

The graph data has been carefully selected, ignoring the CentOS continuous updates repository, and selecting a period when mainline updates were slow due to the new way in which Red Hat kernel updates are released.
Red Hat Bug ID Red Hat Fix released CentOS Fix released Oracle Fix released Difference (days)
2012-0743 18-Jun-2012 19-Jun-2012 21-Jun-2012 2
2012-0571 15-May-2012 16-May-2012 21-May-2012 5
2012-0481 17-Apr-2012 17-Apr-2012 23-Apr-2012 6
2012-0350 6-Mar-2012 7-Mar-2012 12-Mar-2012 5
2012-0124 13-Feb-2012 14-Feb-2012 14-Feb-2012 0
2012-0052 23-Jan-2012 24-Jan-2012 25-Jan-2012 1

In fact, if we look at kernel security updates this year (shown above), we will see that every single CentOS kernel update has been released at the same time or before the corresponding Oracle Linux kernel update.

As such, we’ll be contunuing to recommend CentOS Linux to those who want a free (in both meanings of the word) Linux distribution.

And of course, there’s the fact that the original article completely fails to mention - if you want the security updates first, the only way to get them is by paying Red Hat for support, not Oracle.

[scottro]

I've edited your title. Please try to keep thread titles less emotional--it also will help if the title gives an indication about what you're posting.

[keithpeter]

Hello All

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/20 ... th_attack/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4260716

Oracle have a history of this kind of thing.

A quick read of the comments on those articles from some years ago will reassure people that the target market knows the issues.

Personally, I reflect on how these things show the genius of the GPL and copyleft. You *can* use free software to make money by selling services and support. I also appreciate the irony of Oracle packaging LibreOffice as part of their GNU/Linux distribution.

[TrevorH]

That page is dated July 2012 and dates back to the previous attempt to bait CentOS users into switching to OEL.