Ksplice is a really cool technology that let you update a Linux system without having to restart the machine, which in a server environment this is absolutely critical since this will eliminate or minimize server downtime. Even though the software is GPL licensed. I was shocked to hear that Oracle had purchased the company behind Ksplice and are now dropping Ksplice support for all non Oracle Linux systems. This is absolutely incredible given that Oracle Linux is essentially a fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Oracle is not even making the effort to continue supporting Ksplice on other Linux systems. In my eyes, this is far more worse than bitting the hand that feeds you. In terms of tech companies, as far as I know, I haven’t heard of any other multibillion corporation that literately stoled the product of another company, claim that their product is superior, and make completely anti competitive decisions.

This is why the beauty of the the GNU Public License flourishes over any other software license, at least now we in the free/open source software community can foresee a fork of Ksplice in the near future.

Official Oracle KSplice acquisition FAQ:
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/Acquisitions/ksplice/faq-450488.pdf