Ellison cited the Yahoo deal as the first real evidence of progress from Oracle's high-profile attack on Linux leader Red Hat that began in October. Oracle is cloning Red Hat Enterprise Linux, selling support for less than Red Hat's list prices.

"We've already signed a number of support contracts, some for over half a million dollars. And Oracle has displaced Red Hat at Yahoo and numerous other customer sites as their Linux support supplier," Ellison said on a conference call after announcing the company's quarterly financial results. (According to a Thomson Financial transcript, Ellison used even bolder terms, saying Oracle "replaced" Red Hat at Yahoo.)