Re: native Oracle-port on Linux -- why bother?

Bjorn Borud wrote:
>
> [tzs_at_halcyon.com (Tim Smith)]
> |
> | Benjamin Redelings I <bredelin_at_ucsd.edu> wrote:
> | > However, why Oracle? I'm not really a transaction-oriented-database
> |
> | Oracle (the company) does not like Microsoft. Therefore, at least
> | the way some Linux users think, Oracle's products must be cool and
> | they want them on Linux.
>
> I think this is a oversimplified view of the situation. sure, Larry
> spends a lot of time bashing Microsoft and it is good that someone
> tries to fight the beast in Redmond, but that's not really the issue.
>
> the issue is that the world has changed a lot lately (last 3-4 years)
> with the Internet boom and the need for systems that can glue other
> systems together has risen. Windows does not provide the flexibility
> needed and the traditional UNIX vendors persist in delivering limited
> and expensive operating systems and hardware with pityful bang/buck
> ratios. thus operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD have become
> more common in professional applications because they are _good_
> operating systems that are easy to use, easy to adapt and easy to set
> up. (give me a few thousand dollars around 0900 in the morning and
> before lunch I can have a webserver, name-server, FTP-server and
> mail-server up and running before lunch.)
>
> the point is; there is a HUGE market for applications that are ideal
> to run off a Linux or FreeBSD box so it would be very neat to be able
> to develop and run things like Oracle on Linux. most projects I've
> encountered the last 2 years have had relatively moderate database
> needs where there is no need for the more advanced features of Oracle,
> BUT: many organization wish to stick to only ONE database, and if that
> database is Oracle it usually means that our options are gravely
> limited. instead of adding cheap Intel-muscle to do things like
> front-end processing we have to spend 3-10 times as much money on
> buying hardware that performs about the same -- and where the money
> just isn't available you have to either accept poor performance or
> create not so neat workarounds.
>
> Linux _is_ a professional platform and the reason why people want to
> run Oracle on it is because Oracle is widely used. it has nothing to
> do with Larry's childish name-calling war with Microsoft. leave the
> kid-stuff to the kids.

Considering Oracle 8 is available on OS/2, SCO & Solaris x86, Intel hardware without NT is clearly available for Oracle.

http://www.oracle.com/products/pricing/html/wgs.html

Linux support would be nice for Marketing reasons though.

-- 

John Benninghoff