Re: Humor in Oracle Docs on OTN/Metalink... :-)
Date: 31 Aug 2001 06:01:52 -0700
Message-ID: <178d2795.0108310501.7d05ea46_at_posting.google.com>
"Sybrand Bakker" <postbus_at_sybrandb.demon.nl> wrote in message news:<toucnfoq3eg10_at_news.demon.nl>...
> "Han Thomas" <han_at_royal.net> wrote in message
> news:1ettotog8q8h2oh8on90deaogt207n95g9_at_4ax.com...
> >
> > How about this one, one of the many many MANY documents on how to get 9iAS
> > working:
> >
> > " Note: Do not specify TYPICAL as your installation type; if you do
> > so, the installation will not work. "
> >
> > How true. :-) "Typically", Oracle installations don't work. (For the first
> > week of sleepless nights or so anyway)
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Han.
>
> If you would have advised to file the Oracle remark as a 'documentation bug'
> this would have been funny.
> However, as your second remark usually applies to users just hacking away to
> install the product, without ever reading any docs, it needs to be
> considered as hostile and insulting.
> If you think Oracle products are lacking in quality, call Support (or didn't
> you buy a support contract) or stick to sqlserver, postgres, or mysql, or
> any other toys, which are recommended in these groups more than once.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA
Sybrand, your remarks seem a little unfair to me. Even though I have never had a problem getting the Oracle rdbms installation up and running by following the manuals, I have encountered problems with several Oracle products that would not work even after carefully following the documentation. It turned out that the documentation was wrong, support knew it was wrong, but the platform specific documentation had not been updated to reflect the required changes. Support just expected you to call and download the patch or instructions.
And remember the early versions of Oracle PC software. The products assumed they were the only Oracle software on the PC and if you installed a second product they both broke.
No, I think Hon's comments are very fair. Oracle has a very poor track record for installations for anything other than the rdbms.
- Mark D Powell --