Chuck wrote (about a different Mark):
> Mark is right,  the business environment is very different and in one
> word, ORACLE.

Red Hat, Oracle team on Linux project

By Robert Lemos
Special to ZDNet News
February 13, 2003, 6:04 AM PT

Red Hat and Oracle plan to announce on Thursday that the companies have
teamed to get Linux evaluated under the Common Criteria, a certification
that could open doors for the broader use of open-source software by
government agencies.

<snip>

You can see some of the Microsoft/Oracle clash in this section:

Oracle 9i has already been certified at EAL 4 on both Windows NT and
Solaris, but has to be recertified for each operating system on which it
runs. And Oracle thinks that there is a large market among government
customers for the company's database running on Linux. In fact, some
government clients have been clamoring for Linux, said Mary-Ann Davidson,
chief security officer for Oracle.

"One of our large DOD customers asked us if we could foster a Linux
evaluation," she said. "The customers truly care about getting Linux
evaluated and want Oracle running on it."

There hasn't been much interest in running Oracle on Microsoft's Windows
platform because of past security problems with Microsoft products, despite
the company's major security push, Davidson said.

"We are going to use Unix and Linux as the evaluation platforms for our
products in the future, and not Windows, because the customer demand for
Windows is not there," she said. "Frankly, there is a fair amount of
disenchantment with Microsoft products because of security problems."

Full Story: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-984383.html

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