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Re: Hmmm, it's starting....

From: Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 23:19:16 -0800
Message-ID: <1074583088.663424@yasure>


Noons wrote:

> No. His point is that he was faced with the "fait-accompli" that
> there was a beta program in progress, with not one blip coming
> from Oracle as to who would want to be involved in it. It was done
> by internal choice, not by application. That's his claim and bone
> with the process. And not only his: I'm hearing a lot of negative
> feedback on this one:
> first I and a lot of others heard of a 10g beta test was through posts
> here and in Oracle-l. Not good enough.

If what he said was true I'd agree with him but it isn't. The fact is that there was word about 10i long ago. It was all over the trade press. Truth is that Oracle didn't contact me I contacted them. And the truth, bitter as it may be to Mladen, is that plenty of people joined the Beta after it began because they made testing proposals that demonstrated to Oracle that they had something to contribute.

Betas are not intended to be early release promotional programs. Microsoft tried using them that way once and has never tried it again for what should be obvious reasons. To Beta test you need to have the hardware, operating systems, and resources the software company needs and believes it can benefit from using.

That some of you apparently don't read the trade press, don't read Oracle's marketing White Papers, and didn't proactively contact Oracle's Beta test office when they learned about it is not a fault on Oracle's part. The earliest information on 10i was out there early in 2003.

Here, for example is a Press release from pro-dba.com dated April 2003 talking about the 10i database.
http://www.pro-dba.com/oracle_newsletter_apr03.html

Or perhaps you'd like this:
http://www.dbasupport.com/oracle/news/oracle10i.shtml which refers to the fact that 10i has been in testing since November 2002.

Go to google.com and you will find literally hundreds of items talking about 10i that are dated July 2003 or before.

So lets be clear about this ... Oracle didn't make this a secret anywhere.

And if Mladen thinks I am taking him to task for any reason other than the fact that he has been loose with his facts he is incorrect. Had he stuck to the truth I'd be standing behind him 100%. He is in a hole of his own digging.

>>and amount of spare time available: It doesn't exist. Oracle knows who
>>is licensed ... not who their employees are.

>
> So, why didn't Oracle propose a beta test to ALL the licensees.
> Like it has always done? Heck, it's not like they don't have the
> e-mails to send a URL to...

Because it doesn't want Microsoft to be a Beta tester? Because it has an internal knowledge of what is new code and what is old and is specifically looking for people with the resources to test the new code? To put it through its paces. The last thing they want is people that like to live on the bleeding edge implementing solutions with Beta software and we both know that would happen.

Finally ... the point of a Beta is not an early release or marketing promo. It is to make sure that when the product hits the street it isn't a fiasco. Do you seriously think that less than 90% of licensed sites if offered the Beta wouldn't say yes? Of course they would. Heck my mother'd like a copy too. And then how would they manage it? How would legal handle the contracts? How would tech support handle the install issues? How would they ever staff the office tracking bugs? What you ask for would make sense if Oracle had 10 or 100 customers. It is ridiculous when viewed from the perspective of the world's second largest software house.

>>I have a copy of JDeveloper 10g I downloaded from otn.oracle.com. Can 
>>you similarly get yourself a free copy of .NET? Catering does not mean 
>>bending over and begging for bankruptcy.

>
>
> Actually, I can get a free copy of dotNET. And anything else
> from IBM and the others...
> But I'll have to explain why I want it. Which Oracle also
> asks me. Nothing wrong with that, IMHO.

You can download the DB2 enterprise version for OS/390? Where?

> <plenty wrong with .NET, though...> ;)
>
> Cheers
> Nuno Souto
> wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)
Received on Tue Jan 20 2004 - 01:19:16 CST

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