Oracle: Open-source could bring new customers. Oracle isn't just looking to buy up open-source technology; it sees the software as a route to new customers, according to company executives.
Oddly, this is not such a crazy notion. If you think about it, Oracle already has large in-road in the Open Source Community in the form of its "Oracle TechNet" program (OTN, not to be confused with the Microsoft program of the same name) where they have been giving out hints and tips for installing and running Oracle software on Linux for more than 5 years now. In fact, when most vendors were still trying to decide what to make of the Open Source movement, Oracle, along with O'Reilly and several other companies were already well entrenched and leading the way when even RedHat seemed new to the game.
By acquiring Novell, Oracle gets a top tier Directory Service, that is also multi-platform with out the limitations of Active Directory or LDAP, but with all the functionality, a Linux distribution with a large following and a company with a history of strong engineering and support (even though their marketing has lagged far behind). It would certainly bring more to the Oracle table than RedHat in the long run.
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