Re: Advise needed: Can I use/learn Oracle quickly?

damorgan_at_x.washington.edu says...

> > Interbase is 12 MB fully installed, with a sample db of approx. 2 MB
> > (client is 340 K). It is also an industrial strength database which has
> > been around in commercial guise for approx. 20 years and would be my db
> > of choice for most projects. 5 * 149 = $740, which could, for some
> > organisations, represent a significant amount of money.

> If $740 is a significant amount of money for an organization then
> I would suggest MySQL or one of the other free RDBMS products. But
> then I think you are viewing Oracle as nothing but columns and rows.

Absolutely not. I appreciate that Oracle is in itself a vast and sophisticated technology which is normally in the cutting edge range of db technology.

I looked up the list of features that you provided, and yes, it is true that Interbase/Firebird doesn't provide them (I couldn't find utl_file or utl_smtp in Oracle Essentials or Effective Oracle by Design).

However, with respect, these features are not necessary for many applications, and are overkill for many small to medium organisations.

I would compare Oracle and Interbase/Firebird to, say, a Maybach and your trusty old Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit in US?). The Maybach will get you to your destination quickly, and in style with loads of features, but if you just want to go down to the shop for a carton of milk, why not take the Golf?

Interbase/Firebird will run on Linux boxes with AFAIK, just 16 MB of RAM (may even be just 8) - could you do that with Oracle?

You may see Interbase/Firebird as just "3x5 cards", but it has DRI, triggers, a stored procedure language, User Defined Functions - a whole raft of stuff, and this all fits into a very small neat package, with the corresponding benefit of simplicity of administration - i.e. there is none (apart from a cron job run at 03:00 every night).

Yes, Oracle is admirable in its breath of features, but I would have to argue that from an engineering perspective, so is Interbase/Firebird, for being able to fit in so much into such a small and elegant package.

If I were managing France Télécom or some other huge entity, then Oracle running on some form of Unix would be my db of choice. For less than 500 users, I would seriously look at other options.

Paul...

-- 
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