Oracle Linux Reviews

Oracle Linux is basically Red Hat. It's the same. Oracle took the CentOS project, which is Red Hat, and made its own enhancements. They added something they call 3DBear, which is their proprietary technology. They call it the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).

Oracle took Red Hat, stripped a lot of the software that was not needed for Oracle, which made Red Hat much smaller. They optimized the UEK for their Oracle database applications.

A customer who is planning to have an Oracle database and is looking to see whether to choose to go with Oracle Linux or SUSE Linux or Red Hat, the best option for them would be to go with Oracle Linux because it's the same vendor.

Oracle Linux for Oracle databases is the top. There's no doubt whatsoever. However, if you are going to use it for anything else it's going to be a mess, because many packages will not be supported by Oracle.

For example, I was helping an organization back up various Oracle Linux servers using various kernel versions and various distribution versions. The software that I used for backup requires some packages to be pre-installed into the Oracle Linux machine from the distribution itself, but one of the packages was not available from the Oracle repositories. Because it's a Linux machine, I can manually download this package and install it myself. But the problem with that is that Oracle will void the whole warranty if I install a package from a third-party repository.

If you are going to use Oracle Linux for anything other than running Oracle databases, you will most definitely run into a bottleneck situation in which some packages that are needed, you will not be able to download. And, if you download and install them, you will void your contract, which nullifies the point of you getting Oracle Linux in the first place.

Oracle Linux has a particular use case, not like SUSE, or like Red Hat. 

With SUSE, and Red Hat, you can use them for almost any use case, and you can even install Oracle inside both of them, but you can't do the same with Oracle Linux. 

Oracle Linux is built for Oracle databases. It doesn't make sense for me to get Oracle Linux and install the MySQL database. Even though MySQL is an Oracle product, it doesn't make sense. If I am not going to using Oracle databases then I shouldn't go with Oracle Linux.

Oracle Linux needs to support more packages. I understand that they stripped down CentOS and Red Hat, but Oracle is an organization that will be paying the price of Red Hat making CentOS, CentOS-3 as well.

I understand the idea of making the Linux distribution just optimized for their Oracle database, but I'm not going to get Oracle Linux because it works well only with Oracle products. 

I will most likely have a diverse infrastructure. So instead of going with Oracle Linux, I will go with SUSE Linux or Red Hat. Why? Because Red Hat, for example, has support for many, many packages. Instead of me going to get Oracle Linux for the Oracle database and Red Hat for the remaining workloads, why not get Red Hat from the beginning.

I have been using Oracle Linux for two years. It is still pretty new to me.

I have used Oracle Linux versions 6, 7, and 8.

Oracle Linux is a stable solution. 

When you take Red Hat and strip several applications off of it and optimize it to work with Oracle databases, Oracle Linux is the most stable Linux.

Technical support was great. I didn't deal with them directly. When I had an issue, I was interacting with a team who was administering the Oracle Linux environment, and when we ran into hiccups and we needed support from Oracle, they would initiate a ticket, and Oracle would respond and would provide support.

The installation is comparable to Red Hat, and CentOS. It's not difficult.

In terms of the configuration, it won't take more than 30 minutes to install. 

However, because it's an Oracle Linux, there are Oracle databases involved, which means there are steering committees. There will be complications in the implementation that are not related to the actual installation of the product itself. This will delay it by several days.

In general, I would not recommend this solution, but if you are going to be running Oracle databases, then yes, I would recommend Oracle Linux.

If you are going to be running Oracle-based solutions, or if your data center mainly is controlled by the Oracle Corporation then yes Oracle Linux would be the best choice.

You shouldn't go with Oracle Linux if you're not going to be using Oracle products.

As I am not particularly interested in Oracle, I would rate Oracle Linux a seven out of ten. If however, I was, then I would rate it a ten out of ten.

I use this solution for developing applications and APIs for our platform.

There needs to be overall better integration.

I have been using this solution for approximately 20 years.

I have found the solution to be stable.

The solution is scalable.

We have approximately 25 users using this solution in my organization.

We use vendor support and it is good.

I use Windows systems as well as this soltuion.

The installation is straightforward.

We used integrators to help us implement the solution into our systems. 

We have six engineers that do the maintenance of this solution.

The licensing cost is expensive. It should be reduced by at least half.

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate Oracle Linux an eight out of ten.

Oracle Linux is mainly used for deploying Oracle databases. It can be used for a multitude of other functions. There are modules that can be implemented on systems to cater to your organization's needs.

The most valuable features are performance, frequent update patches, and security.

The solution could improve by giving the client or customer more control.

I have been using this solution for approximately five years.

The solution is very stable.

I have found the solution to be scalable. They have other options available, such as cloud and hybrid versions.

If you have premium technical support it is great, they have been responsive in solving our issues.

The installation is easy, there are readily available reference guides you can utilize to complete the installation. It took approximately two hours to complete the install.

The deployment and maintenance are done by vendor teams.

There is a license required for this solution and we are on an annual license.

I recommend this solution to others.

I rate Oracle Linuxan eight out of ten.

We use this solution internally to develop our systems.

Our developers work in another section to develop the data center. We provide services to the developers and other business units.

It's a good product, and the areas to improve are quite limited.

The good thing about Oracle Linux is that it's free, as long as you don't want support. If you want the support you have to pay for it.

They don't provide updates.

It could be more secure. They should increase security.

Also, the scalability should be improved.

In the next release, I would like to see it more secure and more usable to adapt to the new technologies that are coming up.

I have been using this solution for two years.

We are using the latest version. We are always updating.

It's a very stable product.

It's a scalable solution. It's basic Linux clustering and high availability. We have approximately 20 users in our organization.

Their support is quite good.

We are satisfied with technical support. There is no need to be improved. There is no need to be faster, more knowledgeable, or customer friendly.

We also use SUSE Linux, Ubuntu Linux, CentOS, and Red Hat Linux.

The installation is quite straightforward.

It takes about an hour to install.

We need a team of two people who concentrate on Oracle Linux.

I am able to complete the installation myself.

Oracle Linux is free, you only pay for support.

If you don't want support you can fully pay for the enterprise solution.

It's cheaper than RedHat. Oracle support is a bit cheaper than Red Hat's support.

Oracle Linux is very cheap at this time. 

I would recommend this solution to others.

I would rate Oracle Linux and eight out of ten.

We are primarily using the solution for our Oracle Database.

The solution is very, very stable. The performance is reliable. 

It's very useful for hosting other Oracle products.

The solution is very scalable. You can expand it if needed.

Technical support is very good. They have been responsive and they understand the product.

The initial setup is quick and easy. It doesn't take too long.

The pricing of the solution is not too high. It's reasonable. 

The security could always be slightly improved on the product. We'd like it if it was a bit more secure.

I've been using the solution for a couple of years at this point. It's been a while. I have some experience with it at this point.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance.

The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so with relative ease. It's not a problem.

We currently have about 50 people on the solution.

We do plan to increase the usage in the future.

Technical support is good. They are helpful and responsive. We are quite happy with the level of support we have received from them so far. They are available when we need them.

Previously, we had a mixed environment and we were using all sorts of operating systems. 

The initial setup is not overly difficult or complex. We found the process to be very straightforward. The deployment itself was fast.

We have two members of the technical team that can handle any maintenance required. 

We handled the implementation ourselves. We did not need the assistance of a consultant or implementor. 

We pay for a license on a yearly basis. It's not an overly expensive product. It's affordable.

We're using the latest version of the solution at this time.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We're quite happy with the capabilities of the solution so far. It works as expected and does what we need it to do.

I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations. 

I am not an Oracle expert, I'm a database expert. From my standpoint, Oracle Linux is more compatible with the latest open-source software than other operating systems like Ubuntu Linux and CentOS Linux. I have faced a lot of challenges with different operating systems but it turns out that other database packages are not very compatible with different operating systems. They are not very compatible with Arch and Ubuntu Linux; however, Oracle Linux is highly compatible with all of the open-source projects.

I wouldn't say that we had many major challenges with Oracle Linux. I can't say it's the most advanced operating system, but I can definitely say that they patch regularly. We didn't have major challenges with Oracle Linux, to be honest.

I have been using Oracle Linux for more than five years.

I don't think that we had any kind of stability issues. Most of the time, if I remember correctly, we worked with Oracle Linux when it was a part of the private cloud. By private cloud, I mean it was in VM. Being in VM with limited resources, sometimes the software packages would crash, but I don't recall the operating system ever crashing. The issues we experienced were due to the software and filter packages, not the operating system.

Oracle tech support is pretty well organized. They have a long history of offering support for their Oracle packages. It doesn't matter if it's an Oracle database, an Oracle operating system; they give support 24/7, covering every time zone. They have multiple experts available for every issue you could experience. They can always be reached no matter what. They are very well organized with their support.

Oracle Linux is very easy to set up.

Oracle Linux is very much compatible with other platforms. Installing VMs is very easy. If you are installing on a hard metal server, it's still very easy. I installed Oracle Linux myself, I didn't have major challenges with it.

Nowadays, Oracle is very open toward price negotiation; they negotiate well with their clients. 

If you're interested in Oracle Linux, make sure you know the infrastructure of where it's going inside and out. You have to have a clear idea of where exactly your organization is heading in the future, whether private cloud or public cloud. These decisions are not made in seconds, minutes, or even days or weeks. But you have to have a clear idea. For example, if a company wants to use Oracle Linux and they think after two or three years they might be in a hybrid cloud, or maybe a public cloud, they had to make sure they aren't too dependent on the operating system. Whatever software packages they are using should be very compatible with the existing infrastructure like a hybrid or a public cloud.

Picture two containers that are very much independent: you can implement Containerization in Oracle Linux and the same containers can and will work well in both a private cloud or a public cloud infrastructure.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Oracle Linux a rating of eight.

Because nothing is perfect, I wouldn't give any operating system or any other software packages a rating of 10. They have bugs sometimes. For some extra points, they should keep aligned with the ope-source community. Oracle is very loyal to their own customers. If a client is experiencing an issue, they will work with them until it is fully resolved. But what about the open-source community? I think they should also pay more attention to the open-source community. 

We use the solution on our server and premises.

Pricing could be improved.

I have been using Oracle Linux for a few years.

The product is 99.99% stable.

The solution is very scalable. Sixty-five users are using it.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

It comes with an annual subscription.

If you were to buy Oracle Data Vault or something similar, it includes a firewall. Securing the DPU with Oracle Data Vault is great, but it costs a fortune.

In data center operations, we use distributors. As far as I know, it's distributed across sixteen sites. Besides Oracle Linux, we have other solutions such as Oracle Forms, Reports, and EDS.

I would advise knowing the number of calls and CPUs required for each application and their allocation.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

We use this solution for deploying and managing operating systems and web servers. It is good for web, network, and file management.

The ease of deployment is very valuable because the deployment process is straightforward to manage.

The documentation capabilities could be better. Although it is sufficient, other solutions provide better documentation. 

We have been using this solution for two years and have used a variety of versions.

The solution is stable and we have no issues with it.

The solution is scalable, and it is easy to patch.

We have no experience with customer service and support. 

The initial setup was straightforward. However, it may be more challenging to set up for people with no experience.

I rate this solution a seven out of ten because there can be improvements to the documentation capabilities and the communities around them.