Purchasing MOS access

From: Janine Ohmer <JANINE_at_FURFLY.NET>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:12:49 -0800
Message-Id: <E8401B47-7E43-4DBD-A51B-7B3C32BA9368_at_FURFLY.NET>



We've discussed this here before, but things change rapidly in the world of Oracle licensing so I'm here to find out the latest info before actually purchasing.

As I've said before, I work as an Oracle consultant for clients where the "real" DBAs are far above me in the organization and typically don't know I exist (and sometimes wouldn't be very happy about it if they did). So most of the time I have no access to Metalink/MOS. This isn't as large a liability for me as it is for most of you, as my use of Oracle is pretty light stuff, but there are times when it would come in very handy. I also have no access to patches, which isn't good for my clients.

So I want to buy the cheapest Oracle license I possibly can, just to get access to MOS and the ability to download patches. At the moment, that appears to be Personal Edition, which will allow me to purchase only 1 "named user plus" for $460 (SE One is cheaper per user, but requires a minimum purchase of 5). It's a perpetual license, and support is $101.20 annually. Or I could go as low as $92 for a one year license, with the same support cost.

I am not sure what support includes. If it's patches, I need it. If it's the ability to open a TAR I probably don't; since most of my clients are running Enterprise Edition, and none of them are running Personal Edition, they probably wouldn't be wiling to help me anyway.

Does anyone know if purchasing this license will get me what I need? Do I need the support? Is there a better way to do this?

Seems like I can't be the only one in this position, but I see no signs of Oracle offering options other than buying my own license.

thanks,

janine--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Tue Feb 15 2011 - 12:12:49 CST

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