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Oracle Offers Linux 'Dot Com' Package

Oracle is offering small and midsized companies a software package for getting started on the Internet - a package that now runs under Linux.Oracle is making it easy for small companies to use its Internet software so they "can avoid coming to us later in a success crisis" with a need to convert, said John Magee, Oracle's director of Internet platform marketing.
Written by Charles Babcock, Contributor

Oracle is offering small and midsized companies a software package for getting started on the Internet - a package that now runs under Linux.

Oracle is making it easy for small companies to use its Internet software so they "can avoid coming to us later in a success crisis" with a need to convert, said John Magee, Oracle's director of Internet platform marketing.

The software is known as Oracle's "dot com" package. It has previously been available under Unix and Windows NT. But Oracle officials noted that more than half the downloads of the developer's version of the Oracle8i database were for use under Linux. So they have made the other elements of the package - the Oracle Application Server 4.0.8.1, the portal framework WebDB and Java programming tool Jdeveloper - also available under Linux. The application server supports Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Enterprise Edition.

The price of the package is $6,767. "This is convenience packaging for direct buying from the Oracle store," Magee said.

In another Linux development, Red Hat said it has expanded its Linux kernel development group to 14. Many Linux developers are volunteers, but Red Hat has put a number of such developers its payroll since shortly after its founding in 1994. The best known is Alan Cox, who is considered second in command of kernel maintenance and development to Linux Torvalds. Others include Peter Braam, Zach Brown, Richard Henderson, Harald Hoyer and Jakub Jelinek.

Kelly Beavers, the president of Linux storage company Ecrix, said his firm was establishing a Linux technical site, OpenTape.org, with the Linux Fund, a nonprofit organization for granting scholarships to university students who show promise as open source code developers.

The site will republish the information of the Linux Documentation Project, which covers all aspects of the operating system. The site will also publish end-user product reviews, feature discussion boards and serve as a clearinghouse on Linux storage issues.

Ecrix is the maker of a tape drive backup system for Linux servers, VXA-1. Any proceeds from advertising on the site will go to the Linux Fund, Beavers said.

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