Re: SQL server Vs Oracle

I really shouldn't do this, but....

NB: I'm not pro/anti-MS in this debate. This is a neutral reality check; a bit of business reality, a bit of history...

David (desertfox_at_thegrid.net) wrote:

: anyway. Nice of you to 'trim' my original post but I was saying in that post
: that the IT MANAGERS are the ones that are going to say 'who gives a rat's
: ass to Word's paltry 100 meg install'.

The IT managers with 500 client machines to manage, that's who. Not 386's but maybe a P133 with 1Gb disk - ie a machine under 3 years old and _still_ not written off due to depreciation (some places run depreciation over 4 years). I've got DX4-100's with 16Mb of RAM and 500Mb disk in use because they are still within "asset value" and can not be junked.

100Mb is now a relatively large install :-(

: Microsoft applications on your 120 Meg drive and I will continue to develop
: software applications.

You _will_ lose a big market with that attitude.

Businesses can't always afford the biggest and best machines. Inertia and sheer size prevents this. Realise that the home hobbyist probably has a machine twice as powerful as the typical office user.

: Upgrade if you are still running Win 3.1, and after you upgrade you will be
: upgrading less and less than those people had to in the past. Is this such a
: hard concept to understand?

It's actually a falacy. People stuck with DOS for many many years. Even when DOS 6 was out, most apps still ran fine under DOS 3.3. The speed of releases of Windows versions combined with the speed of release of Office. A company that has just (eg within 2 years) rolled out Win95 are now looking at having to replace their Office95 systems with Office97 since their business partners are sending documents in this new format. Now they're going to have to look at Win98 or make the jump to NT, let alone looking at W2K etc.

It's very easy for a home (or maybe even small business) to upgrade and keep up to date. Unfortunately larger businesses do not have the resources. Imagine how long it would take to send people to each of 500 desks to perform a Windows or Office upgrade. It's a non-trivial project!

: I think I will. Memory is incredibly cheap. If you can't afford more memory
: then you might consider another line of work as making money in the computer

There are two issues here.

1. Server side. Yes, memory is easy and cheap. Installing more memory in your SQL Server is always viable - to the limits of the machine. However NT doesn't always properly manage memory resources, so this will aid stability, but not solve leak problems
2. Client side. See above discussion on how to roll out memory expansions to 500 desks.

: Internet only occured several years ago. Most of the older big name
: eCommerce companies date back to 1995.

I've snipped out the mess that this really refers to, because of bad quoting style and messy writing. However note that MS were not one of these companies. Remember MSN anyone? The Internet killer? I was in the UK Web design industry at that time, and we were beta testers and developers for MSN. Proprietery protocols using NT servers and requiring MS client software. Fortunately Bill saw the light, dropped the mess and converted it to a real internet solution. Fastest about-face I've seen in such a large business, and all credit for him in being able to do this. Don't believe all the hype Bill now tries to put on this; he made a bad mistake on MSN.

: not a new concept. Last time I checked Navigator was FREE. Is Netscape

It wasn't originally, but it was forced that way due to MS predatory tactics. Originally Navigator was free for evaluation, students, (home?) use, but businesses had a BUY copies. Only Microsoft bundling IE forced Netscape to give their browser away for free.

[ Re MSIE being free ]

: wouldn't take it. Just because some software is free doesn't mean someone
: will take the time to install it on their machine and take up all that

But it came pre-installed with Windows, so you didn't even need to worry about that.

: guess anti-Microsoft people have to develop a sense of humor as they
: tearfully watch Microsoft continue to be one of the most successful
: companies mankind has ever known.

That kind of rhetoric belongs in advocacy groups, not in technical discussion forums. Followup's set to comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy (which I don't read).

--

rgds
Stephen Received on Mon May 17 1999 - 04:29:19 CDT