Upgrading from 8.0.x to 8.1.x considered harmful

i have advised my consulting firm not to install 8.1.x internally, nor to advise our clients to deploy it, unless specific oracle8i features are required for project success. there are very few such features.

the central problem is that 8.1 will not live compatibly with 8.0 products. there have been numerous cases of net8 failure to make local or remote connections, incompatibilty with locally-installed third-party tools, incompatibility with oracle's own 8.0 products, and severe cost- based-optimizer bugs.

there have been isolated cases of 8.1 installs working just fine. that is no comfort. most installs are more complex than that, involving other tools.

the only solution i have come up with: install oracle8i by itself on a machine containing no other oracle products or third-party tools; access 8i only by remote control over the network. THIS seems to work and can be supported.

i invite comments from usenet colleagues. --
dave mausner Received on Sat Feb 05 2000 - 14:57:14 CST