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"There are always concerns, but keep in mind that Oracle...acknowledged that Red Hat is the technical leader in the market," Szulik said. "We still have a rich product pipeline. We will compete."

Today Oracle announced that it would provide the same enterprise class

support for Linux as it provides for its database, middleware and

applications products. Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat

trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020718/ORCLLOGO )

Currently, Red Hat only provides bug fixes for the latest version of

its software. This often requires customers to upgrade to a new version of

Linux software to get a bug fixed. Oracle's new Unbreakable Linux program

will provide bug fixes to future, current, and back releases of Linux. In

other words, Oracle will provide the same level of enterprise support for

Linux as is available for other operating systems.

Oracle is offering its Unbreakable Linux program for substantially less

than Red Hat currently charges for its best support. "We believe that

better support and lower support prices will speed the adoption of Linux,

and we are working closely with our partners to make that happen," said

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Intel is a development partner. Dell and HP are

resellers and support partners. Many others are signed up to help us move

Linux up to mission critical status in the data center."

"Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program is available to all Linux users for

as low as $99 per system per year," said Oracle President Charles Phillips.

"You do not have to be a user of Oracle software to qualify. This is all

about broadening the success of Linux. To get Oracle support for Red Hat

Linux all you have to do is point your Red Hat server to the Oracle

network. The switch takes less than a minute."

"We think it's important not to fragment the market," said Oracle's

Chief Corporate Architect Edward Screven. "We will maintain compatibility

with Red Hat Linux. Every time Red Hat distributes a new version we will

resynchronize with their code. All we add are bug fixes, which are

immediately available to Red Hat and the rest of the community. We have

years of Linux engineering experience. Several Oracle employees are Linux

mainline maintainers."

DELL

"As a customer with first hand experience of Oracle's outstanding

support organization, Dell will use Oracle to support Linux operating

systems internally," said Michael Dell, Chairman of the Board, Dell.

"Oracle's new Linux support program will help us drive standards deeper

into the enterprise. Today we're announcing that Dell customers can choose

Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program to support Linux environments running on

Dell PowerEdge servers."

Intel

"Having worked with Oracle for many years in the enterprise computing

space, we believe that the Oracle Unbreakable Linux program will bring

tremendous value to our mutual Linux customers," said Paul Otellini,

President and CEO, Intel Corporation. "Our work with Oracle on this program

will be an important extension to our longstanding enterprise computing

relationship."

HP

"HP and Oracle's collaboration and testing of Linux with integrated

stacks of hardware, software, storage, and networking has helped create

numerous best practices across the industry. HP welcomes the addition of

Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program to the portfolio," said Mark Hurd,

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, HP.

IBM

"Oracle's support for Red Hat Linux will encourage broader adoption of

Linux in the enterprise," said Bill Zeitler, Senior Vice President & Group

Executive, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "IBM shares Oracle's goal of

making Linux a reliable, highly standard, cost effective platform for

mission critical applications backed by world class support."

Accenture

"Linux is important to us, and to our customers," said Don Rippert,

Chief Technology Officer, Accenture. "We applaud Oracle's efforts to bring

enterprise-quality support to Linux with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux

program announcement. Together with Oracle, we at Accenture look forward to

making the Linux experience even better for our customers."

AMD

"Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program will greatly expand the servicing

options available to our AMD Linux customers," said Hector Ruiz, Chairman

and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micro Devices. "We are excited by

the program's potential to further enhance the success of AMD Linux servers

in the enterprise."

Bearing Point

"It is critical that our customers have true enterprise-quality support

for their Linux deployments. Oracle's Unbreakable Linux program support

delivers the level of confidence our customers need to run Linux in their

data centers," said Harry You, CEO, Bearing Point.

EMC

"The combined power of EMC and Oracle solutions bring superior

reliability, scalability, high availability, and now, enhanced enterprise

supportability to Linux users. We are confident that joint Linux solutions

from EMC and Oracle will deliver enterprise scale and quality while

lowering the cost of infrastructure for our customers," said Joe Tucci,

Chairman, CEO, President, EMC.

BMC

"As Oracle's only systems management ISV at the highest level in

Oracle's Partner Program, BMC Software is excited to see Oracle's deepening

commitment to Linux," said Bob Beauchamp, BMC Software President and CEO.

"Business Service Management from BMC Software with the Oracle Unbreakable

Linux program meets customer demand for lower cost and higher quality

support for their infrastructure."

NetApp

"The world's largest enterprises must have the flexibility to quickly

and continually adapt to today's rapidly changing business requirements,

without incurring risk," said Dan Warmenhoven, CEO of Network Appliance.

"The Oracle Unbreakable Linux program is designed to drive the key benefits

of Linux -- including flexibility, reliability, and simplicity -- directly

into the data center. The longstanding relationship between NetApp and

Oracle has enabled us to continuously deliver superior enterprise solutions

to enable business agility and improve reliability -- all tenets of the

NetApp brand."

Oracle Support

Oracle's breadth and depth of technical expertise, advanced support

technologies, and global reach includes 7,000 support staff in 17 global

support centers, providing help to our customers in 27 languages, in any

time zone. Oracle has recently been awarded the J.D. Power and Associates

Global Technology Service and Support Certification for "an outstanding

customer service experience."

"With the scale of our support organization we can provide much better

Linux support at a much lower price," said Executive Vice President of

Oracle Customer Services Juergen Rottler. "We have the expertise and

infrastructure to improve substantially the quality of support for

enterprise Linux customers."

Enterprise Linux binaries will be available for free from Oracle.

Enterprise Linux Network Support will be offered for $99.00 per system /

per year. Enterprise Linux Basic support, which offers Network access plus

24x7 global coverage will be offered for $399 for a 2 CPU system per year

and $999 for a system with unlimited CPU's. Enterprise Linux Premier

Support, which offers Basic support plus back port of fixes to earlier

releases as well as Oracle Lifetime Support will be offered for $1,199 for

a 2 CPU system per year and $1,999 for a system with unlimited CPU's.

Oracle and Linux

Oracle has been a long-standing, key contributor to the Linux

community. Oracle produced its first commercial Linux database in 1998.

Since that time Oracle has worked steadily to improve the experience of all

Linux users. Oracle's Linux Engineering team is a trusted part of the Linux

community, and has made major code contributions such as Oracle Cluster

File System that is now part of Linux kernel 2.6.16. Oracle has been and

will continue contributing Linux related innovations, modifications,

documentation and fixes directly to the Linux community on a timely basis.

About Oracle

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software

company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at

http://www.oracle.com .

Trademarks

Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of

Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of

their respective owners.

This announcement is provided to you solely for information purposes,

is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and

should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. Many factors can

materially affect Oracle's product development plans and the nature and

timing of future product releases. The development, release, and timing of

any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of

Oracle. This information may not be incorporated into any contractual

agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle

specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information.

Oracle Unbreakable Linux FAQ

What is Oracle announcing?

Oracle is announcing Unbreakable Linux, a support program that provides

enterprises with world-class, award winning, global support for Linux.

Recognizing the demand for true enterprise-quality Linux support and

seeing an opportunity to significantly reduce IT infrastructure costs,

Oracle is now offering Linux operating system support. Oracle is committed

to delivering high quality, comprehensive, and integrated support solutions

to help ensure enterprise success with the Linux operating system.

What is Oracle delivering with Unbreakable Linux?

Driven by enterprise customer requirements, Oracle will provide the

following for Linux server deployments:

-- Patches, fixes, updates, and back ports for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

3 (RHEL3) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL4) releases, delivered via a

subscriber network, the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN).

-- Three levels of Linux support to choose from

-- Network -- software, including updates;

-- Basic -- 24x7 global support;

-- Premier -- 24x7 global support with back ports and Oracle Lifetime

Support.

-- Support for customers, existing or prospective, regardless of

whether or not they are using Oracle products.

How can Oracle provide enterprise-quality support for Linux while

lowering cost?

For decades, Oracle has been supporting customers' enterprise-class

software deployments for the most mission critical data centers in the

world. As the industry's leading enterprise support provider, Oracle

offers:

-- 7000+ support professionals with 24x7 global coverage;

-- Support in 27 local languages;

-- 400,000 knowledge solutions;

-- Dedicated Linux engineering team;

-- Comprehensive testing and optimization of Linux with third-party

hardware, storage, networking, and drivers;

-- Support for the entire software stack running on Linux including

enterprise applications, middleware, database and the operating system;

-- Services and expertise for installation, configuration and full

Linux stack deployment.

Oracle's support of Linux offers confidence to customers to move to a

commodity platform and lower their cost.

Why is Oracle offering Linux support?

Oracle has a long-standing history of offering standards-based

computing choice while lowering the cost of infrastructure for customers.

We believe that true enterprise quality support for Linux is something that

our customers want. Oracle is deeply committed to accelerating the growth

of the Linux platform as a viable low cost alternative for enterprises.

Delivering high quality Linux support and advancing Linux technology is

critical to the success of the Linux platform.

How does Oracle work with the Linux community?

Oracle is committed to developing, supporting, and promoting Linux.

Oracle has been a key contributor to the Linux community for many years,

including major code contributions such as Oracle Cluster File System that

is now part of Linux kernel 2.6.16. Oracle's Linux Engineering team is a

trusted part of the Linux community and several Oracle employees are Linux

mainline maintainers. Oracle will continue contributing Linux-related

innovations, modifications, documentation and fixes directly to the Linux

community on a timely basis. We will strive to set the standard for

collaborating with the Linux community.

Oracle puts tremendous effort into testing Linux to run well in the

enterprise. Oracle's Linux test lab uses many test kits that are based on

real customer workloads to test and stress Linux for performance,

reliability, scalability and high availability. The results of these

testing efforts make their way into the Linux kernel as bug fixes and new

enhancements, thereby making Linux better for our customers.

How much do I pay for Linux support from Oracle?

Oracle's pricing for Linux support is simple.

Annual price per Annual price per

system with up to system with unlimited

2 physical CPUs physical CPUs

Installable

Binaries

and Source Free Free Free installable Linux

binaries and source

will be available

through http://www.oracle.com

Enterprise Linux

Network Support $99 $99 Access to software and

updates through the

Unbreakable Linux

Network

Enterprise Linux

Basic Support $399 $999 Network access plus

24x7 support with

global coverage

Enterprise Linux

Premier Support $1,199 $1,999 Network access, 24x7

support with global

coverage, plus back

port of fixes to

earlier releases as

well as Oracle Lifetime

Support

Please see the pricing guide for further details.

Do customers need to be concerned about IP ownership issues?

Oracle is committed to the success of the Linux platform and will stand

behind our support offering by providing indemnification against

intellectual property claims raised against our customers.

Which hardware platforms does Oracle support?

Oracle supports x86 and x86-64 architecture based hardware running on

Linux. All hardware platforms that are certified by Red Hat for RHEL3 and

RHEL4 for x86 and x86-64 architectures are supported by Oracle.

What happens to third party application certification if I start using

Oracle's Linux Support?

You can continue to use any ISV application that has been certified for

use with RHEL3 and RHEL4. Oracle will offer support for the operating

system running underneath applications that have been certified with these

versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

What is the transition plan for current Oracle customers using Oracle's

original Unbreakable Linux support?

For all Oracle customers, Oracle is offering a free trial period for

Linux support starting from October 25, 2006 and ending on Jan. 31, 2007.

Any Oracle customer with any current support contract can receive free

Enterprise Linux Premier support from Oracle until Jan 31st, 2007. In order

to continue receiving Linux support from Oracle beyond Jan 31, 2007, the

customer will need to sign up with Oracle to receive support.

What is the transition path for existing Red Hat and Novell Linux

users?

Transition is very easy. Existing Red Hat and Novell Linux customers

that move to the Unbreakable Linux support program may receive credit for

the remainder of their existing support contract. For example, if a Red Hat

customer has a support contract expiring on July 1, 2008 and the customer

purchases a three year Enterprise Linux Premier Support contract on March

1, 2007 as a replacement, then the customer will be entitled to support

under their Oracle contract from March 1, 2007 through July 1, 2011, three

years after the customer's Red Hat contract expires. Please see Linux

support policies for important information regarding this offer.

From a technical perspective, for systems where RHEL3 or RHEL4 are

installed, customers need to only download the "up2date" program from

Oracle, and run that program on each system. No reinstall is necessary.

From that point on, the customer will receive bug fixes and new versions

through Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network. For systems where other

distributions or other Red Hat versions are installed, Oracle will provide

a migration guide, and Oracle Consulting Services offers an Unbreakable

Linux Migration Strategy Service.

Is Oracle offering any promotional discounts?

Yes. Oracle is offering a 50% discount for Enterprise Linux Basic and

Premier Support until January 31, 2007. During that time customers may

purchase Basic Support for $299 (two physical CPUs) and $499 (unlimited

physical CPUs) per system annually, and Premier Support for $399 (two

physical CPUs) and $999 (unlimited physical CPUs).

Will Oracle continue to support other operating systems?

Yes. Oracle has a thirty-year history of supporting Oracle products on

numerous popular operating systems. Unbreakable Linux does nothing to

decrease our commitment to other operating systems such as Windows, other

distributions of Linux, or Unix environments.

Will Oracle continue to support customers that are using Oracle

products on Red Hat RHEL, Novell SLES, and Asianux?

Yes. Oracle is fully committed to all of its customers that have

deployed or will deploy Oracle products on other Linux distributions that

are currently supported, including Red Hat, Novell and Asianux. We will

continue to certify and offer support for Oracle products running on these

Linux distributions. For operating system issues, users will need to work

with their vendor.

How do I get more information and sign up for Linux support from

Oracle?

To get more information, visit oracle.com/linux

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