why no Oracle on FreeBSD ?

telmnstr at 757.org telmnstr at 757.org
Fri Sep 25 14:28:21 UTC 2009


> That whoever wrote that post is very closed minded, has no problem
> condemning something prior to investigation, and perhaps wears a pair of
> glasses that only come in one shade.

Oracle is an expensive business application that is expected to be VERY 
reliable. It's expected to have a high end support infrastructure behind 
it.

This is why they limit the number of operating systems to a very specific 
few, that are backed by companies with a reputation. I'm not vouching for 
them, but most businesses aren't looking to plunk down $50,000 or $100,000 
for a database product for their mission critical application, and run it 
on something that lacks a commercial support infrastructure behind it.

RedHat is the only reason linux has gotten as far as it has in the heavy 
business and gov't world.

> I completely and utterly disagree with the claims made in that post.
> I've been using FreeBSD for nearly 10 years, and I vouch for the fact
> that FreeBSD has made huge strides during that time. Not only is the OS
> mature, but so are the people who write it, maintain it, and advocate it.

While it has, it's still lagging. I can't even get a decent shell from the 
FreeBSD install CD or boot CD. If the installer fails at getting the first 
package, after you re-enter the information to try again, it seems to pick 
up on package #2, skipping the first, which is probably the kernel. I took 
a hiatus(sp) from FreeBSD and when I came back after spending a bunch of 
time in the Linux world, I noticed some pretty sore things.

I'm not hating on BSD, I'm still kind of meh about Linux, but I can see 
why companies do what they do. A small firm webhosting stuff with MySQL is 
one thing. Large corporations running mission critical databases is 
another.

I assume Oracle goes through heavy lengths to certify their product on the 
few OSes they officially support. Probably Solaris, Redhat and their own 
Linux distro. This is a huge deal to them.

Think of it as an appliance. If you hate Linux, help Solaris. Run your 
oracle on your Solaris system, and hit it from your FreeBSD system.

I'd be willing to bet there is little to no commercial demand for Oracle 
on FreeBSD. Heck, look at all the SGI went through with Oracle, and the 
rumors were that Oracle ran faster than any other platform on IRIX for a 
while. Oracle wouldn't release it, maybe becuase Ellison and McNealy are 
BFF or something.





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