O’Reilly publishes first Oracle and Open Source book

19

Author: JT Smith

A few years ago, many would have laughed at the notion
of
Oracle Corporation not only tolerating open source software, but
incorporating it into their own product lines. Today, the Oracle8i
database has been ported to Linux, the open source Apache Jserv web
server is a vital part Oracle’s Internet Application Server (iAS), and
hundreds of applications are now available linking open source programs
to Oracle databases and providing new tools for Oracle database
administrators and developers.

The just-released “Oracle & Open Source: Tools and Application” (Duncan
and Hull, O’Reilly & Assoc. $39.95) is the first book to tie together
the commercial world of Oracle and the free-wheeling world of open
source software. It describes nearly 100 open source tools, from the
widely applied (like Linux, Perl, and Apache) to the Oracle-specific
(like Orasoft, Orac, OracleTool, and OraSnap). The authors describe
where to find these tools, what their advantages are, and how to create
and release new open source Oracle tools yourself.

“The combination of Oracle Corporation and open source software may
appear to be an unlikely pairing. What could Oracle, with its history
of ruthless competition, intense marketing, and cutthroat corporate
life, have to do with the collaborative, altruistic, and apparently
anti-corporate world of open source?” says Andy Duncan, coauthor of
“Oracle & Open Source”. “The answer, surprisingly, is quite a lot. In
recent years, the gospel of the open source movement has spread far and
wide, reaching even the corporate corridors and product lines of
organizations like Oracle Corporation. This new synergy between the
corporate world of Oracle and the freewheeling world of open source is
a great thing–the blended products we’re starting to see truly do
represent the best of both worlds.”

“Oracle, as the first major independent software vendor to announce
Linux support, played a key role in bringing open source to the
mainstream,” says Eric S. Raymond, author of “Cathedral & the Bazaar”
and President of the Open Source Initiative, “This book continues that
tradition by showing Oracle developers and DBAs how open source can
improve their working lives and their productivity. I’m very glad to
see it.”

Chapter 1, Oracle Meets Open Source, is available free online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oracleopen/chapter/ch01.htm.

An article by Andy Duncan, Oracle & Open Source: Gazing at the Crystal
Ball, is available online at:
http://oracle.oreilly.com/news/oracleopen_0401.html.

Registration has opened for O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention in San
Diego,
July 23-27, 2001. For more information, see:
http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/.

Oracle & Open Source
By Andy Duncan & Sean Hull
0-596-00018-9, 424 pages, $39.95
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
http://www.oreilly.com