Re: Oracle versus Sqlserver

nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam (Nuno Souto) wrote in message news:<3c4ea6e1.2404282_at_news-vip.optusnet.com.au>...
> Joel Garry doodled thusly:
>
> >directly to VT-52's. I vowed never to work on COBOL again, and to
> >date have kept it with some minor exceptions (like links to old
> >routines and bizarro layering of Oracle on old COBOL stuff).
>
> Hehehe! Actually Pro*Cobol was quite popular here in Australia for a
> while. Fortunately most sites wised up!

Here too, I just was lucky.

>
> >
> >That's good to know! But horror stories are always so much more...
> >interesting.
>
> you mean like the first V6 alpha release I got (6.0.4 or thereabouts)?
> Created the database, created 1 table, loaded data, proved the
> row-locking was working. Scripted the lot, shutdown the instance.
> Try to start it again 1/2hour before the demo, no database anywhere.
> Gone, all data files blissfully blank.
>
> Or the other time when we were installing the thick Ethernet backbone
> at Australian HQ (at 1 Pacific Hwy, for the locals). Put all the
> cables and drop-down boxes over the top of the roof partitions. Demo
> of SQL*Net next morning for the local press. Overnight the roofing
> guys came in, re-arranged the roofing partitions to put in the
> air-conditioning ducts, cut the thick backbone cable and re-arranged
> it through the new partitions. They were also kind enough to splice
> the cable back together with duct tape. Bless their helpfull souls...
>
> And the V5 advance releases that had AUFI, then SQL*Plus, then AUFI,
> then SQL*Plus,etc etc. Didn't help at all when we had to demo the
> darn things to prospects here: they couldn't make their minds up.
> Neither could we.
>
> Or the auditing in AF using LONG fields for the audit code? Which in
> V6 caused regular database corruptions. Of course, it was the DBA's
> fault...
>

This is great! Anybody else have any scooby-scares? I tried to put together a horror page years ago, never got but two submissions... I thought about combing through cdo*, but that is like work :-)
>
> >
> >Hey, I jumped on him because he was blaming users for not properly
> >designing and writing code when it was the vendors product limitations
>
> Fabian was not (isn't?) a very politically correct person at the best
> of times! ;-) But I quite enjoyed his contributions. Still have a
> copy of his first book: for the time it was quite adventurous.

Which was his first? I bought his sql intro book contemporaneous with that stuff, just to see if he could actually write.

>
> >Any of that old C$erve stuff archived anywhere? I pretty much stopped
> >using it when usenet took off.
>
> Dunno. I had a look at their archival site a while ago. To see if I
> could dig out some of the early discussions, as well as the stuff in
> Canopus. Couldn't find any. Some of the early OS2 fora are still in
> my OS2 disk, somewhere in my garage.
> It's a pity if Compuserve has lost all the RDBMS discussions. There
> was a LOT of useful theoretical stuff there!

I guess the alt.fan.karl-malden.nose.* is far more valuable in the marketplace. ( http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&th=c3de9a3d0a063bfb&rnum=3 )

>
> >arrogance was inexcusable" he said, IIRC). Nothing about _that_ in
> >the O magazine history, big surprise. circa 1990. Hmmm, maybe on
> >e-bay...
>
> ROFL!
>
> >To those who talk about how $500 in MS would be $500,000 today, I say
> >for every Microsoft there were a dozen Kaypros and Ataris, and a
> >thousand DEC/Xerox/Wang/Prime/DG/Polaroids...
>
> Tell me about it. I did the maths last year: if I'd held to my
> initial shares of Oracle like I wanted instead of being forced to sell
> when I left, I'd have today the equivalent of about US12M$. That's in
> today's prices. I won't even tell you what that was when Oracle
> peaked above M$...

I wish I had some of _those_ tax problems.

>
>
> >Yes, I bought DEC as a
> >"bargain" after it fell from $199 to $30 in the '80s, because it had
> >the best engineered big-name rdb around. Just ask Larry. He snatched
> >it up for a mere $100,000,000.
>
> I could never understand which "genius" at DEC did the maths for that
> sale. Lessee: around 10000 RDB licenses worldwide. Each one paying
> around $10000/year in maintenance/lease fees.
> And DEC sells the lot for 100M$????? Heeeellllloooooooo????
> No wonder Larry was so happy...

Obviously, someone with an Excel spreadsheet on their Rainbow.

jg Received on Wed Jan 23 2002 - 14:38:13 CST