To lower support costs and make customers feel more comfortable with open-source software, Oracle announced a new program Monday to let its users know which Linux system configurations the vendor has pretested. Oracle’s Validated Configurations program covers software, hardware, storage and networking stacks for running Linux.Customers can download a short document containing a list of the system configurations Oracle has pretested along with documented best practices from the Oracle Technology Network.The idea is to help customers speed up the deployment of Linux systems, said Wim Coekaerts, director of Linux engineering at Oracle. If the program is successful, it should also drive down support costs for Oracle. “Very often, customers call us with problems caused by misconfigurations,” he said. Coekaerts stressed that the Validated Configurations program should be seen as providing recommendations to Oracle customers, not laying down the law on what systems they should deploy.Oracle worked on the configurations with partners including the two leading Linux distribution players, Novell and Red Hat, chip makers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel as well as computer and storage vendors Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems. Oracle made its validation test kit available to the companies so they could test and publish the vendor’s validated configurations. Oracle may also look to share some of its system tests with its customers, Coekaerts said. Oracle and its partners plan to issue new configurations and update existing configurations as new releases of specific components appear.The database and applications vendor had its first database running on Linux in 1998 and begun offering full support for the operating system in June 2002. Linux is set to overtake Sun’s Solaris operating system next year as the leading platform for Oracle database users, according to a recent survey of members of the Independent Oracle Users Group.In April, Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison caused a stir with public comments suggesting that Oracle might offer its own Linux distribution. Coekaerts said some Oracle customers have quizzed him about that possibility. His take is that there are already a large number of Linux distributions in the market, so adding another one might not be a good or helpful move for Oracle or its customers. “It’s business as usual,” he said. “We’re focused on our partners Red Hat and Novell.”While the configuration program’s partners so far are large global vendors, Oracle is looking at working with more local players in Asia, Coekaerts said.As well as Red Hat and Novell’s Suse, Oracle also supports the Asianux Linux distribution.Currently, Oracle doesn’t certify the Ubuntu Linux distribution since it’s seeing little demand for such support among its enterprise users, Coekaerts said. “If that were to change, we’d definitely consider supporting Ubuntu. We’re really market driven,” he added. -China Martens, IDG News Service (Boston Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content BrandPost How Infosys and Tennis Australia are harnessing technology for good By Veronica Lew Mar 26, 2023 6 mins Infosys BrandPost Retail innovation playbook: Fast, economical transformation on Microsoft Cloud For retailers, tight integration of data and systems is the antidote to a challenging economy. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 3 mins Retail Industry Digital Transformation BrandPost How retailers are empowering business transformation with TCS and Microsoft Cloud AI-powered omnichannel integration and a strong, secure digital core lets retailers innovate across four primary areas while staying compliant, maintaining security and preventing fraud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 4 mins Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to Build ROI from Cloud Migration This whitepaper and webcast can help you calculate the ROI and create a business case for modernizing your legacy applications to the Microsoft Cloud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe