Dell, HP to resell Oracle's operating systems

Oracle said Thursday that rival hardware vendors Dell and Hewlett-Packard intend to certify and resell its Solaris and Enterprise Linux operating systems as well as Oracle VM on their x86 servers.

The announcement "demonstrates Oracle's commitment to openness," company co-president Charles Phillips said in a statement. In addition, Solaris is simply in demand for use on multiple x86 server platforms, he added.

An HP executive put it another way. Many customers simply "have hardwired stacks of applications and infrastructure that can’t rapidly change," said Paul Miller, vice president, solutions and strategic alliances, enterprise servers, storage and networking, in a statement.

Users of Dell and HP x86 servers will be able to purchase Premier Support contracts from Oracle as a result of the agreement, and gain access to future updates.

Questions have been raised on the latter front with regard to OpenSolaris, the open-source distribution of the Unix operating system. Frustrated by what they consider a lack of communication from Oracle, OpenSolaris governing board members have threatened to disband if conditions don't change soon.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com