Linux any good

[lilelvis2000]

Is Linux Any good.

I'm considering getting a new system and dual booting it with Linux. and then putting Oracle 10g on it. I find Oracle 10g doesn't run too well on Windows.

[bored]

No.

[Sysman]

Don't like Linux myself, but if it runs the version of Oracle you want, why not give it a whirl?

Hint. Don't get bogged down in the Linux-or-not wars. Just use it as a platform for what you want to do with Oracle.

[ferret]

Ubuntu or Fedora will install on any hardware - best if the hardware is a good 6-12 months older than the linux release to make sure more of the drivers are there although things have not been bad last few times, Linux certainly is progressing.

Dual boot is a piece of cake with new installs too, just chuck a second hard drive in and use that.

Although have you ever thought of VM Ware? Buy a decent PC and you can boot to Windows and have access to all your Windows stuff and have the Linux system open in a Window. Get dual monitors and have windows on one and Linux on the other, makes working a lot quicker. Plus you can network them and swap files that way. Very easy to back up VMs too! At £90 or whatever it is, well worth the money.

[Fishface]

ubuntu is nice and simple.

Red Hat is a pain in the hole.

And whilst dual boot is possible - the bootloaders are a nightmare.

[NotAllThere]

No.

I think you'll find the correct answer is, in fact, yes. At least judging by commercial use.

[TheFaQQer]

Is Linux Any good.

I'm considering getting a new system and dual booting it with Linux. and then putting Oracle 10g on it. I find Oracle 10g doesn't run too well on Windows.

Yes.

If you're just after an Oracle DB, then the flavour of Linux doesn't really matter. If you are putting eBusiness Suite on, then you need to make sure that you use a supported version of Linux. I had problems installing eBS on SUSE 10, and all I got was a message "it's not supported on SUSE 10".

Safest bet is to use Oracle Unbreakable Linux as the platform (same as Red Hat, IIRC), since they will support that if you have problems.

[bored]

If you want Linux just to learn it and/or try Oracle on it then definitely get VMWare.

1) Saves you a lot of time as you won't need to set up e-mail, browsers etc, you probably won't even need X.
2) You can run the client software for your DB on Windows if you need to
3) If you find any incompatibilities between the version of Linux you'll be using and Oracle, rebooting with a different kernel will be much easier
4) VMWare is a good skill to have these days

[DBA_bloke]

If you are fiddling with Oracle on Linux, then check Oracle's compatibility matrix... or you'll hit problems at some point. RH may not be as friendly as other distros - but so what? It's the main player and so most likely one you'll see in the field.

[Cowboy Bob]

If you're going Oracle, I'd personally use Centos. It's compiled from the source of Red Hat Enterprise Linux so is binary equal and reports itself as RHEL, which Oracle loves.

Luckily it costs a few thousand less than RHEL, weighing in at the massively high price of £0.

Never had any problems installing anything Oracle on it, from the DB through to things like OC4J. Just worked out of the box.