在一封写给Financial Times的信件里, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik 回复了Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's 关于该公司将涉足Linux事业的决定. 在信中RH CEO表示了一种疑问, 是否是因为RH收购了JBoss而让Oralce产生了担忧. Szulik 是这样发出疑问的 "Is it possible that the dominant provider of databases feels pressure from its long-time partner, Red Hat, because of our recent purchase of an open-source middleware company, JBOSS?" "Some reporting would set up a showdown between Red Hat and Oracle. This seems like a stretch to me."
在Oracle Open World上, Larry宣称Oracle将要把Red Hat的系统贴上自己的牌子来销售和提供支持, 而且Oracle提供的产品和服务将比Red Hat便宜更多. Ellison先生说 "If you are a Red Hat Linux customer, you now have a choice," "You can very easily switch from Red Hat support to Oracle support. We will backport your bug fixes. We will indemnify you from intellectual property problems. And our support costs way less than half of what Red Hat charges." 这个事件 , 从本质上来说可以下这样一个判断, Oracle正在动Red Hat的乳酪. Oracle霸占别人的产品并且贱卖它. 这的确是一个残忍而且不君子的举动, 但Larrry肯定不会为此而感到抱歉. 看看他说的 "This is capitalism," "We're competing. We're offering a better product at a lower price." 当被问道强占并重贴牌他人品牌产品是否有违道德标准时, Oracle的CEO这样回答 “It’s an open-source product, right? That is what open source means.”
对于Oracle的这样的大胆富有攻击性,又有点鲁莽的举动, 大多数人都对此表示了怀疑和轻蔑, 更有人觉得是一种夸大其词. Oracle的一名老兵 Dave Dargo 对他的公司此举颇有微辞. Dave Dargo 参与建立了Oracle的Linux Program Office 并且参与制定公司的开源战略. 他指出Oracle从来没有历史提供 superior value at a lower cost. "There's a survey from CIOInsight that shows Red Hat is the number one vendor for value as rated by CIOs in 2004 and 2005," "Where does Oracle fit on that chart? Glad you asked, they ranked 39 out of 41. The other thing I'm most curious about is the concept of Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). The claim is that it takes less than a minute to switch from Red Hat's Network (RHN) to ULN. It's going to take more than a minute, and a fair amount of cost, to get through the legal agreements and process of switching over. But even with that aside, I'm mostly curious as to why Oracle's first real support network is for someone else's product. Where's the Oracle Database Network and Applications Network and PeopleSoft Network and Siebel Network? Where are the support infrastructure networks for Oracle's own products to automatically distribute fixes, patches and alerts? It's amazing that they can provide all that for a mere $399 for a competitor's products, but not for their own $200,000 product."