14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, the Financial Times newspaper reported that US software vendor and database behemoth, Oracle is considering entering the Linux OS market. The company said it was forced to consider changes to its business after Red Hat's aquisition of JBoss brought more competition, in addition to IBM's.
Oracle intended to offer full packages which would include the operating system as well as applications. Sadly lacking details, the article says the company has looked at buying Novell, which holds second place on the Linux market, after Red Hat.
"I'd like to have a complete stack. [...] We're missing an operating system. You could argue that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at distributing and supporting Linux", said Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO.
It's difficult to tell if Oracle is actually going to buy Novell. In its shopping spree, the company was rumored to be the leading contender for JBoss and Zend Technologies (of PHP fame). Perhaps it's just that Ellison has bought a fresh batch of Novell stock and now needs some cash.
We'll see. Either way, any move a company like Oracle makes is likely to cause a lot of stir.