Oracle to distribute Red Hat after all

Despite rumors to the contrary, it looks like reports of the split between Red Hat and Oracle were greatly exaggerated. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced at OpenWorld yesterday that the company plans to offer a re-branded version of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux and will offer support to Red Hat users, including those who aren't Oracle customers. The database giant claims that they can offer better support than Red Hat and at a lower cost, to boot. "You do not have to be a user of Oracle software to qualify," clarified Oracle President Charles Phillips. "This is all about broadening the success of Linux. To get Oracle support for Red Hat Linux all you have to do is point your Red Hat server to the Oracle network. The switch takes less than a minute."

For more on what Oracle's entry means for the Linux market:
- see this Ars Technica article