Re: Oracle vs DB2 vs MySQL - Which should I use?

Mark Yudkin wrote:
>
> You received reasons not to use MySQL. Otherwise, there isn't much to choose
> between DB2 an Oracle (they're different, but unless you specify what you
> consider important, how can anybody rate them?)
>
> Elsewhere Sybase and Informix are mentioned. I find Sybase a pain in the
> butt, and would avoid it if I didn't have to use it for a paritcular
> project.
>
> Another "good" DB (assuming you're on NT / W2K) is MS SQL Server 2000 (now
> that should start a flame war here!)
>

My experience is related mainly to DB2. Although I had more than ten years of experience in SW development I had never used any professional DBMS since 1 year and a half ago. My first project was testing DB2 as an alternative to Oracle in AIX environment. We use update anywhere replication to guarantee read/write access even during extraordinary management such as fixpak installation, changing db configuration and so on. In one day I set up a minimal configuration to make replication between two servers. The first impression was more stability, easy of management, better response to configuration changes and less resource
(expecially disk) usage for even better performarce. We had also bad experience with Oracle (italian) assistance with MS style of replies such as
"wait for next service pack" or "you can't do that...". Oracle had more features with respect to 5.2, but the gap has been filled with 7.1. I have to mention online backup and reorganization and the quality of the optimizer: you rarely need to optimize your query by hand. As defense
to Oracle I have to say that what I reported is mainly from my collegues experience: I didn't used it too much, so I cannot speak directly. Once again I'm mainly a software development and believe me, DB2 CLI are many steps ahead with respect to Oracle OCI. They're standard, clear and simple to learn. I don't know the current Oracle situation, but two years
ago the choice was DB2. To say nothing about the price...

Matteo Received on Tue Feb 13 2001 - 02:22:34 CST