Re: Informix coming to Linux, Dump Oracle NOW!

[dwgannon_at_aol.com (Dwgannon)]
|
| Let me see the informix stock keeps dropping. Who will buy them.
| What support will you have. No Thanks. Oracle 8 and the Web server
| 2.1 is for me.

uh, support? I must be missing something here. the last time I needed support on Oracle I called them and described my problems in great detail and answered their questions patiently. I talked to several different people, but none of them were able to help me so I started digging into the system and went after the problem with tools for tracing system calls etc. the error message I got said something to the effect of "you are out of memory", which was obviously wrong because the system had gobs of free memory.

it turned out that the error occured because OCI was unable to access the charset translation files due to improper access permissions on those files. later I discovered the same misconfiguration at two more sites that had nothing to do with each other or the system where I first encountered the misconfiguration.

I don't want to think about how much money it cost the project to call Oracle support, but despite the fact that I talked to several of their support people without ONE being able to figure out what my problem could be suggests to me that this type of support is a waste of money. it was actually quicker to just trace system calls and do some detective work.

also, there is something very wrong with your software if you are stranded in the event that the company that sold you the software should vanish from the face of the earth. we all know that this usually isn't the case (they find new investors, redecorate a bit and voila: new company with an already installed base of software), but let's imagine that this would be the case.

is it acceptable that you, after paying lots and lots of money should be stuck with a product that needs attention from its maker every now and then?

-Bjørn

-- 
 Bjørn Borud <borud_at_guardian.no>       | "The Net interprets censorship 
 <URL:http://www.pvv.unit.no/~borud/>  | as damage and routes around it."
 UNIX person, one of "them"            |         - John Gilmore