Re: Beware! the days of Oracle may be numbered

In article <36EFA7F0.961E60E4_at_Feist.Com>, KeyStrk_at_Feist.Com says...
> Yup. And I don't want it to happen to me ever again. The Oracle didn't surpass
> DB2 in new sales because Oracle was a better DBMS, it was because it was
> cheaper, while getting the job done adequately.
>
> Now if someone else comes along with an even cheaper solution, that happens to
> be more closely integrated with the operating system to boot, the same thing
> will happen again. That is, as long as the DBMS gets the job done adequately.
> Version 7 of SQL server looks like it can do the job adequately. Probably not
> better, likely not even as good, but adequately.
>
> When all the new cars on the street are running on unleaded gasoline, you don't
> want to be the only gas station in the city that only sells leaded gas.
>
> Van Messner wrote:
> >
> > Oracle displaced you from your position? Now we've reached the crux of the
> > matter.
> >
> > Van
>

I would suggest that you stop reading Forbes and start reading some Computer magazines (not the PC kind). Forbes has their own out look on the world and it is not relevant to our business.

As for suing MS, I don't have experience there, but I do have experience trying to enforce penalty clauses. I used to work for a goverment agency which took care of infrastructure. We were required to put penalty clauses in all of our contracts. Trying to enforce them was a joke. Unlike a resurfacing job where you can measure how deep the asphault is and how long it took to do the work, software is usually described in vague terms. Terms like send e-mail are very vague. For example does it just mean to its own server or to the internet? Will it talk to a MS Exchange server or to a Lotus mail handler. Will take attachements? Does it store and forward or does the send die? You cannot win if all you said was just send email.

To be able to win a suit, you must painstakeningly define everything. We did that and it took on average 6 months to produce the documentation and then another 6 months of negotiations to get the vendor to accept it. I doubt many for profit companies would go through this.

I have no worries about Oracle disappearing soon. One day yes, but not for a while. If you have been following recent Oracle developments, you will know that Oracle has created a version for Internet apps and they have a version for Linux. Hardly a stagnating piece of software.

I'm afraid that you have lived a very sheltered life if you are just discovering that you need to keep up with technology. From what I see being a generalist is now in vogue. For example, my job spec excepts me to be a OpenVMS guru; a Unix sysadmin for two very different flavors of Unix, Digital Unix and HP-UX; and to be a Oracle DBA for both Unix flavors and NT. The side benefit is I am employable in a lot of places. My bosses know this and compensate me accordingly. If I were you, I would skip the books on SQL Server, if you have dealt with a number of databases, you will pick it up quickly. I would study the care and feeding of NT servers.

Finally, if you do not already know it. What you have done is called trolling. Trolling is an activity which can get you bounced from most reputable ISPs.

Liz

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My real address is L R E E N a t P E R R I E R G R O U P d o t C O M Received on Mon Mar 22 1999 - 10:40:50 CST