"I expect that Release 2 of the Oracle Cluster File System will be distributed with version 2.6.14 of the public kernel," said 2.6 Linux kernel maintainer Andrew Morton yesterday as Oracle announced at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco the general availability of OCFS 2 as a free alternative to proprietary systems.

It will also be included as a standard component in Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server distributions, Oracle said.

"Oracle Cluster File System Release 2 delivers significant cluster file management improvements that help our customers reduce IT costs without compromising quality or performance," said David Patrick (pictured), vice president and general manager, Linux, Open Source Platforms and Services at Novell.

"Linux adoption in the enterprise continues to increase, thanks to the commitment and technology advancements made by companies like Oracle," he added.

To date, Patrick noted, tens of thousands of copies of OCFS have been downloaded from the Oracle Technology Network ( OTN ).

By distributing OCFS Release 2 through the Linux community and major Linux distributors such as Novell, Oracle affirms its commitment to sharing technology advances that benefit Linux users, the company said in an announcement.

OCFS 2 will be the first clustering component to be added to the public kernel. "We hope that it will provide a foundation for further improvements to enterprise Linux deployments," said Morton.

"Oracle is very focused on providing the best tools and support for our customers. Since we open sourced our cluster file system code three years ago, we have been diligently working with the Linux community to develop solutions that simplify cluster file management," said Wim Coekaerts, director of Linux engineering, Oracle. "This release encompasses all the hard work driven by Oracle's commitment to its growing base of Oracle-on-Linux customers."

OCFS Release 2 will be included in the Linux 2.6 kernel, and will be available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 9. OCFS 2 will also be included with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise 9 Service Pack 2.