So I decided to check the "Competition" section of Red Hat's annual
SEC regulatory filing (10-K):

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1087423/000119312513173724/d484576d10k.htm#tx484576_1

(see pages 11-13)

"Oracle" and "Microsoft" are each mentioned seven times in this
section, far more than any other company. Granted, Oracle _Linux_ is
only mentioned once, but once is enough to show that Red Hat takes it
seriously.

Interestingly, "Fedora" and "CentOS" are also specifically named as
competitors. So I can rephrase my earlier question: How does Red Hat
believe the acquisition of this competitor will make them money?

(I have my guesses, obviously. Hint: What is Red Hat's strategy for
ensuring that Fedora does not compromise RHEL sales? What do you think
their strategy will be to ensure the same for CentOS?)

Anyway, enough speculation from me. We will all see what actually
happens soon enough.

 - Pat


On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 2:54 PM, Andrew Z <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes I meant oracle.
> Im not sure if oracle is the major competitor in os market for rh.
> From my expirience it is still windows vs unix in enterprise infrustructure.
> Speaking of oracle clone - it comes only with oracle products.  And even
> then, not that often. Again these are my observations over couple of yeara
> and ill be happy to reconsider if you have some statistics to support your
> point.
>
> From what I understand "code for free" was never an issue for rh. The
> companys bussines was to _provide services_ on top of open source os.
>
> On the contrary,  I think that the way to grow the rh bussines is to work in
> as many open source projects as possible. This way more people are fimiliar
> with this particular version of linux.
>