Re: No future for DB2

rkusenet wrote:
> This article is very bleak about future of DB2. How credible is the
> author. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1839681,00.asp
>

DB2 takes a bit of getting used to, but it IS easy to use compared to Oracle. DB2 also takes a rather logical path in its hierarchy of its architecture, which translates into an easy-to-understand engine. It has its own quirks, like any product, but it will work well in shops looking to make a move from SQL-Server, or other engines.

As far as Oracle, it really is Oracle-vs-Everyone-Else, on the merits that Oracle does not live by pessimistic locking--it is an optimistic locking engine, the only one worth mentioning. The important point here is that application development for Oracle is different than say for Everyone-Else on that alone. Having said that it means that if anyone really stands to be "odd-man-out" it would be Oracle, not DB2. It is far easier to get DB2 working in SQL-Server shops, and get people to actually using it. DB2 has a very easy to understand architecture, like Informix, and has a lot of features Informix should have, like table-level memory-management.

All the big vendors will do the leap-frog of who-is-better but none of them are judged on a day. Besides in many IT shops Oracle is an application requiring support, not an application development environment. This is important to note, because it means Oracle is only as important as its applications. Outside of Oracle applications, Oracle has a lot more to worry about than DB2. It is also important to note that DB2 is also being used in a utilitarian way on a lot of IBM hardware, and in Websphere, so its hard to say that DB2 is in "trouble". It runs well, and takes a lot of abuse, similar to SQL-Server. While it might be more favorable to work on your pet DB, most shops are using more than just one DB anyway, so it's safe to say DB2 will be around for a while. Received on Mon Jul 25 2005 - 18:32:07 CDT