Oracle intersted in buying Ubunutu

[Daniel Robitaille]

On 4/18/06, Chanchao <custom at freenet.de> wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-04-18 at 19:03 -0700, Daniel Robitaille wrote:
>
> > how it would make more sense for Oracle to buy Ubuntu
>
> BARF!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Besides, why would they buy it if they can just leach it like the Mepis
> people did?
>
> Just creating an Oracle repository with their database junk could even
> be enough?  At least it would make installing Oracle on Linux more, erm,
> humane.

Just imagine Oracle taking Ubuntu (don't even need to ask; they just
need to get it from the repos), and re-package it with a few change in
the artwork, add mp3, java, flash support  and few other things on
top.   And then market it by  saying it's the linux-leading Ubuntu
desktop under the hood with it's stability, support, and ease of use,
but it includes all the goodies real people uses in their day-to-day
life and free phone support.  Sell it agressively for 20$-30$, i.e, 4
times lover than a Windows or MacOS upgrade, and try to grab a portion
of the desktop market share.

I suspect quite a few people in developed countries would be willing
to pay 20$ for a Linux that's all ready (no need to visit
RestrictedFomats on the wiki or to run EasyUbuntu or Automatix) and
the safety line that they are one phone call away from live support.

In some ways that what's I was expecting when we heard that Mark
bought ImpiLinux last year:  keep a free Ubuntu we all know and use,
but have a parallel "Ubuntu-Plus" that is no-free (but still very
affortable) with all the non-free/libre stuff all ready for the users.


--
Daniel Robitaille