[CentOS] any significant differences between centos and OEL?

[Jim Perrin]

On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
>  someone just pointed out to me that there is a distro called "oracle
> enterprise linux" which is effectively a re-branded RHEL, so i'm
> curious -- has anyone here used both centos and OEL and would there be
> any differences that would be worth caring about?
>
>  the only thing i can think of that might be worthwhile is that OEL
> might change some of the default kernel parms thru /etc/sysctl.conf
> that make that distro more appropriate for running large oracle
> databases.  beyond that, i have no idea.
>
>  thoughts?
>

CentOS is essentially a doggedly faithful rebuild of RHEL. OEL adds
some tweaks, php-oracle, and various other mods they feel are
appropriate. Last I looked, it was available for free, but the updates
and support came with a price tag attached. This may have changed, and
I make no claims as to its stance.

There's also a moral implication. RH's staff has vocally supported
CentOS, and we contribute back to the RH community though bug
reporting, bug fixes, suggestions, patches, etc. We don't charge for
CentOS support, so we don't impact RH's business. Oracle on the other
hand DOES offer paid support, which impacts RH's business, and I don't
see any substantive attempts by oracle to give anything back to the
community at large.

Note, I have nothing against oracle nor do I work for RH, so this is
my own opinion, entirely speculative, and in rare cases incorrect.



-- 
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Orwell