But Henry said that Oracle's strategy of cloning RHEL, first released in 2000, adds little for users. "One has to question the performance and security implications of running a seven-or-more-year-old OS if one decides to move to Oracle," he said. "Oracle could have perhaps made a better business decision to simply switch their OS to either of the Asian Linux distributions" it is involved in.

Oracle, through a Japanese subsidiary, owns a majority stake in Miracle Linux, which is based on RHEL source code. Oracle also backs Asianux, a Linux distribution that combines Miracle Linux and Red Flag Linux, a popular variant in China.

Newman warned that with Unbreakable Linux, Oracle won't be able to get by releasing patches just once a quarter as it does with its database. He and Cox both also said that Oracle needs to improve its process for ensuring fixes and patches don't inadvertently break something else or create another vulnerability.

"Oracle will have to improve its regression testing," said Cox. "They can't just throw out patches."