Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux, is a Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), repackaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) since late 2006.

Oracle Linux can be downloaded through Oracle's E-delivery service or from a variety of mirror sites, and can be deployed and distributed without cost. Commercial technical support is available through Oracle's Oracle Linux Support program, which supports Oracle Linux, and existing RHEL or CentOS installations (i.e. without reinstallation). As of 2013, Oracle Linux has over 11,000 customers subscribed to the support program.

RHEL compatibility

Oracle Corporation distributes Oracle Linux with two alternative kernels:

Oracle

In classical antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to provide wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination.

Description

The word oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. Interestingly the word Oraculum can be considered as two Arabic words joined and spoken as one: ( أورى ) Ori and ( كلم) culum. It refers to: speaking words in an unclear codified way. Similarity occurs between that meaning and the mysterious speaking style of those known as Oracles, whether in literature, movies, or else where. In extended use, oracle may also refer to the site of the oracle, and to the oracular utterances themselves, called khrēsmoi (χρησμοί) in Greek.

Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense they were different from seers (manteis, μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.

Linux

Linux (pronounced ⁱ/ˈlɪnəks/ LIN-əks or, less frequently, /ˈlaɪnəks/ LYN-əks) is a Unix-like and mostly POSIX-compliant computer operating system (OS) assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on 5 October 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to describe the operating system, which has led to some controversy.

Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system. Thanks to its dominance on smartphones, Android, which is built on top of the Linux kernel, has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems. Linux, in its original form, is also the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers and virtually all fastest supercomputers, but is used on only around 1.6% of desktop computers with Linux-based Chrome OS taking about 5% of the overall and nearly 20% of the sub-$300 notebook sales. Linux also runs on embedded systems, which are devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system; this includes smartphones and tablet computers running Android and other Linux derivatives,TiVo and similar DVR devices, network routers, facility automation controls, televisions,video game consoles, and smartwatches.

VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox (formerly Sun VirtualBox, Sun xVM VirtualBox and Innotek VirtualBox) is a hypervisor for x86 computers from Oracle Corporation. Developed initially by Innotek GmbH, it was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008 which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.

VirtualBox may be installed on a number of host operating systems, including: Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris, and OpenSolaris. There are also ports to FreeBSD and Genode.

It supports the creation and management of guest virtual machines running versions and derivations of Windows, Linux, BSD, OS/2, Solaris, Haiku, OSx86 and others, and limited virtualization of OS X guests on Apple hardware.

For some guest operating systems, a "Guest Additions" package of device drivers and system applications is available which typically improves performance, especially of graphics.

History

VirtualBox was initially offered by Innotek GmbH from Weinstadt, Germany under a proprietary software license, making one version of the product available at no cost for personal or evaluation use, subject to the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). In January 2007, based on counsel by LiSoG, Innotek GmbH released VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) as free and open-source software, subject to the requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Linux distribution developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86, x86-64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z, and desktop versions for x86 and x86-64. All of the Red Hat's official support and training, together with the Red Hat Certification Program, focuses on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is often abbreviated to RHEL, although this is not an official designation.

The first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to bear the name originally came onto the market as "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server". In 2003 Red Hat rebranded Red Hat Linux Advanced Server to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS", and added two more variants, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS.

Red Hat uses strict trademark rules to restrict free re-distribution of their officially supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but still freely provides its source code. Third-party derivatives can be built and redistributed by stripping away non-free components like Red Hat's trademarks, including community-supported distributions like CentOS and Scientific Linux, and commercial forks like Oracle Linux, which aim to offer 100% binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.