Re: Is comp.databases.oracle.server dying?

From: Mladen Gogala <gogala.mladen_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:18:08 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <gpmc60$t5p$2_at_solani.org>



On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:36:01 -0700, Paulie wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
> I've followed this group on and off for a while now, and am just
> wondering is it dying?
>
> Time was, there'd be over a hundred posts a day, now the traffic seems
> right down.
>
> Is this true or is it my imagination? Have the forums.oracle.com boards
> helped the decline?
>
>
> Paul...

I think that Oracle Corp. curtailed the flow of information. There is definite lack of white papers and technical articles. Most of the "technical articles" in the Oracle Magazine can be categorized as a marketing BS. Long time ago, people like Ken Jacobs, Tom Kyte, Gaja Vaidayanatha, K. Gopalakrishnan or Steven Feuerstein would not hesitate to get to this group and engage in debates. Now, even their blogs are not very useful. The "AskTom" site never takes questions and is becoming less and less useful. People like Richard Foote, Jonathan Lewis, Tanel Poder, Fairlie Rego, Julian Dyke and Greg Rahn are posting useful information when they find it, but my impression is that even they are getting less and less.
My only hope is that PostgreSQL will come up with something like the wait event interface and extentded SQL trace facility. That would create a real alternative to Oracle. History seems to be repeating itself. There used to be a company, no 2 in the computing world, that had the best OS that I've ever seen and excellent hardware. They published the source code for that OS and there were many experts for that particular OS. Suddenly, the company changed the licensing policies for the OS and started playing marketing games. It was much harder to get relevant information on VMS 5 then it was to get relevant information on VMS 4.2 and VMS 4.7. The company looked grander than ever, they even came up with their own version of SCSI bus, called DSSI. Everything was DEC: DEC disks, DEC terminals, DEC networking protocols, DEC CPU, DEC memory and DEC peripherals. They were pushing vendors like Emulex, Xyplex and Wyse out of business. Soon afterwards, DEC collapsed. Just when they started to make everything and curtail the information about their central line of business (VAX computers with the VAX/VMS operating system), they failed and vanished from the computing world.
Curtailing the technical information may be the first sign of the pending demise. I would hate to see that, Oracle is still my favorite database, with a technological edge over the competition. However, one must be ready for that eventuality. Stopping the flow of technical information is usually the 1st sign that something is going seriously wrong with the company and Oracle is, in my opinion, doing just that.

-- 
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Received on Mon Mar 16 2009 - 15:18:08 CDT

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