Re: oracle has customers over a barrel
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:15:41 -0400
Message-ID: <7gv4ceF2p60sdU1_at_mid.individual.net>
Mark D Powell wrote:
>> From past experience IBM has made changes where we had to pay license
>> charges to keep using features that were bundled in some of our
>> existing IBM products prior to upgrades on our mainframe so IBM is no
>> angel. Nor is DB2 cheap. DB2 is available to run on Linux and I
>> believe on some other platforms as well.
DB2 for Linux, Unix and Windows runs on HP, Sun, AIX, Linux on Intel/AMD, power and z.
There are no angels in capitalism. The market does not encourage altruism. The only control is through competition. The pendulum must swing.
>> As far as the claim in the article that mySQL is a competitor to
>> Oracle (or DB2 or SQL Server for that matter) it just really is not
>> true. Mission Criticial systems do not run on mySQL. If you need
>> ACID compliant systems you have to obtain a database engine to run
>> under mySQL. There are several available. Add an additional layer of
>> licensing and support. Nor is mySQL free for commercial use.
I disagree.
The way I like to describe the phenomenon is that the "low end" is like
the seam of your pants. That's where things start to unravel.
You can take a look at the history of Windows and SQL Server.
mySQL has an incredible pull if for nothing else than the broad skill set.
We may not like that (in fact we may question whether mySQL teaches
"good skills") but it is what it is.
Also some of these small mySQL companies will become big (or already
have) and they stay on mySQL for the same reason anyone else stays on
their DBMS: Too much hassle to switch.
The big three fight this with their "free" offerings which are embedded e.g. into point of sales.
Cheers
Serge
-- Serge Rielau SQL Architect DB2 for LUW IBM Toronto LabReceived on Fri Sep 11 2009 - 09:15:41 CDT