
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK ) – based on newer mainline Linux kernel versions, with Oracle's own enhancements for OLTP, InfiniBand, SSD disk access, NUMA-optimizations, Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS), async I/O, OCFS2, and networking.

Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) – identical to the kernel shipped in RHEL.Oracle Corporation distributes Oracle Linux with two alternative Linux kernels: As of 2016 Oracle Linux had over 15,000 customers subscribed to the support program. The company's Oracle Linux Support program aims to provide commercial technical support, covering Oracle Linux and existing RHEL or CentOS installations but without any certification from the former (i.e. Potential users can freely download Oracle Linux through Oracle's E-delivery service (Oracle Software Delivery Cloud) or from a variety of mirror sites, and can deploy and distribute it without cost.

It is also used by Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata and others. It is compiled from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, replacing Red Hat branding with Oracle's. Oracle Linux (abbreviated OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006.
