Re: Mac OS X & Mac OS X Server

It seems that some of you find the idea of a Mac running Oracle vaguely amusing! I'm a self employed IT consultant (UK based) and at present I'm working for a large utility company (gas, water and electricity) whose systems are Oracle based running on AIX and Linux (Red Hat).

The systems are outsourced and "system level" access to the databases and their operating environments is very limited. Several of the projects I've worked on have required me to either provide proof of concepts or develop fully featured reporting type applications, some of which required small standalone databases to operate. All of this work was/is performed an Apple iBook (800MHz G4 processor with 640MB RAM) because: -

1. Mac OS X is basically UNIX with a pretty face, and is rock solid, and any scripts etc. I produce can be easily moved to the production UNIX and Linux environments.
2. The web front end was easy to develop and test because the default web server in Mac OS X in Apache, just like on the production environments.
3. I can run Microsoft Office and connect easily to the Windows and UNIX environments (including Cisco VPN and Citrix servers), this makes the production of documentation and presentations very straightforward as everything is on the same platform.
4. The Developer release of Oracle 9.2 for Mac OS X has been VERY stable and I've got several development databases running happily on the iBook, and once again everything can be moved easily to the producition environments.

Whilst I'm not suggesting the iBook is a suitable production environment (!), the Apple XServe G5 is a serious server architecture which has gained much respect to date(see http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/macos/story/0,10801,89682,00.html), indeed I can quote Oracle "The power of the new Xserve G5 and the flexibility of Oracle Database 10g running on Apple?s UNIX-based Mac OS X Server will deliver our joint customers a very compelling, cost-effective, scalable and reliable database solution" (see http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/06quotes.html).

As an intro to the G5, the worlds third fastest (and cheapest) super-computer is made from PowerMac G5s, soon to be upgraded to XServe G5s, see
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=2&u=/nm/20040127/tc_nm/tech_virginiatech_apple_dc and http://www.apple.com/education/science/profiles/vatech/.

If you're a UNIX bod using Oracle I humbly suggest that you take a peek at Mac OS X, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Steve

On 2004-02-05 00:16:19 +0000, drak0nian_at_yahoo.com (Paul Drake) said:

> Brian Peasland <dba_at_remove_spam.peasland.com> wrote in message
> news:<4020FCBC.7E85B2F3_at_remove_spam.peasland.com>...
> > > good luck getting bug fixes and patchsets.
> >
> > To me, the only real use of OS X as an Oracle platform is that I
> > could
> > install Oracle client software on that platform. I'd never run the
> > RDMS
> > on a Mac, but I sure would like some of the Mac desktops at my
> > company
> > to be able to connect to the database.
> >
> > HTH,
> > Brian
> >
> > Brian Peasland
> > dba_at_remove_spam.peasland.com
>
> Brian,
>
> I could not agree more.
>
> Paul
>
>
> ok, I can't resist.
> Here goes.
>
> caution: anti-mac troll
>
> Create a Hoax, Earn Damnation
> http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,62157,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
>
> enjoy.
Received on Sat Feb 07 2004 - 08:06:52 CST