Re: oracle 8i lite

[trimmed cross post to two groups only]

In <cjgillis-0302002046210001_at_a19-40.madison.chorus.net> cjgillis_at_chorus.net (Carolyn Jane Gillis) writes:

>In article <3888d722_at_news.nwlink.com>, jrough_at_nanospace.com wrote:
>>In article <3888C714.BA60C844_at_nanospace.com>, jrough_at_nanospace.com
>>wrote:
>>
>>> I have a 604e Mac and would like to install Oracle lite on it.
[del]

Forget about oracle for linux. It's only available on x86 and a pain to install. Take a look at the suse support pages at www.suse.com - almost a completely different set of instructions for every version of suse.

>Which comes to the crux of the matter.
>Why isn't Oracle 8i available for the Mac OS?

IMHO, because oracle looks at MacOS as a client OS, and for reason. Is there Java 2 support? Is there a reasonable Java 1.1.7x version available? I don't know, but all oracle GUI tools for 8.1.x are Java based.

>Why isn't Oracle supporting Apple Mac G4 supercomputers?

Only CPU power alone doesn't make a good database server. You need:

a) good main memory interface
b) a stable OS
c) good disk interface

The Mac hardware lacks a), the OS lacks b) (at least the last few versions of it, with which I had to work with). Firewire or U2W-SCSI is good enough for c), though. But I think there are no raw devices, either (linux hasn't had them for a long time).

>Will there ever be another version of Oracle for the Macintosh again?

You never know. But to get it, Apple has to get stronger outside the US. Even with the iMac success, Apple don't really exist here in Europe.

>What's the point of MacOS X, which is based in part on the BSD 4.4 flavor
>of Unix, if it can't run Oracle?

To get a more stable OS and have at least some POSIX support?

>Why do we have to put up with Linux, a pseudo-1980's operating system, in
>order to use Oracle on our Macs?

You can't. There is no oracle for LinuxPPC nor for MkLinux available.

>It's a giant step backward.

That depends. When you intend to run a server, you should use a server OS. You don't need a fancy and quick GUI then. I must admit that I haven't had a look at MacOS X, but is there a shell build in, or have they still only GUI? Then it would a major pain to port UNIX based programs to.

[deleted monologe about blobs in databases] On the first thought, blobs sound really nice. At the second one, all data stored is being stored on hard disk, which is not what you want with really *big* data sets (~1 tera byte). So, you usually end up with storing a reference in the database and store the data itself on another type on media (tapes, WORMs, MOs, whatever suits your need), sometimes first on disk, later stored on slower media (with the reference updated, of course).

HTH,
Uli
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Dipl. Inf. Ulrich Teichert|e-mail: Ulrich.Teichert_at_gmx.de
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