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Oracle Linux

[Supported Linux Distributions]

Oracle Linux

Red Hat, CentOS, Oracle, Scientific Linux, and many others all derive from the Red Hat software channels. The difference between them amounts to the base packages installed, how you get updates, and whether commercial support is available. Aside from that, they can all be made to look and work exactly the same. The unique aspects to Oracle Linux are as follows.

Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux seemed in years past to be simply a copy of Red Hat, but these days it is more unique. Oracle compiles the same source code as Red Hat very shortly after Red Hat releases changes, plus they add their own bug fixes, extra packages, and they offer public repositories so that you can run an Oracle Linux server without buying a subscription. Oracle also offer subscriptions, much like Red Hat does, that come with varying levels of support, but access to the software repositories does not require a subscription. So if you want Red Hat but don't want to pay their subscription fees right now, yet want to keep the option open for support later, Oracle is worth checking out.

On a related note: ScientificLinux is a USA government-sponsored project that builds and bundle the open-source Red Hat software that focuses on support for scientific research, so its default blend of software is different than CentOS. Of course, you can install whatever you want after it is loaded, so it can end up being essentially the same as all the others. Scientific Linux threw in the towel in 2019 and decided to switch to CentOS (which is owned by Red Hat, which is owned by IBM).