The software described in this documentation is either in Extended Support or Sustaining Support. See https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/enterprise-linux-support-policies-069172.pdf for more information.
Oracle recommends that you upgrade the software described by this documentation as soon as possible.
Oracle Linux is a standards-based UNIX operating system that provides a development
environment very similar to many modern UNIX operating systems. Most of the popular
development and scripting tools used by Linux developers are also available on such operating
systems. For example, the default shell for the root user on Oracle Linux
is bash (version 4.1.x) and the Korn shell is available on Oracle Linux.
The availability of the same shells on both platforms makes it easier to migrate scripts to
Oracle Linux.
Oracle Linux ships with hundreds of standard commands, tools, utilities, and services. These packages are built from the same open source code base that feeds mainstream Linux. Oracle Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems might be similar in many ways. For example, some operating systems offer support for GNU tools and use X Windows as the GUI for their desktop interface. If the shell and development tools are similar on the source platform, it is very easy to move to Oracle Linux as an end user or a developer.