Oracle Media Objects

This is apropos of questions that are sometimes asked in this newsgroup including the one by eyu_at_soda.berkeley.edu.

The following has been sent out by Oracle UK and doubtless something similar in other countries
QUOTE
Dear Oracle Card user,  

As you may already have heard, the product direction of Oracle Card has changed recently, delaying the planned production release of Oracle Card version 2.0. We realize that a clear statement of Oracle Card's future direction is important to you, as a user of our product. The intent of this letter is to inform you of the changes and to provide such a statement.  

The Oracle Card software is being evolved into a new product called Oracle
Media Objects. Oracle Media Objects, announced publicly on February 15 at a worldwide press event, is part of Oracle Corporation's suite of software for building the information highway. It is a portable authoring tool for the development and deployment of interactive multimedia applications. The initial release of Oracle Media Objects will be for the interactive television, or "set-top box", environment, where it will run as a front end to the Oracle Media Server for such applications as video-on-demand, personalized on-line news, and home shopping.  

While this shift in product direction may be somewhat radical, it does not
imply an end to future upgrades for Oracle Card applications. An enterprise version of Oracle Media Objects is planned for release this Autumn. This product will be the ideal tool for stack developers who want to build interactive, desktop front ends to databases, electronic mail, and palm-top organizers; it will include all of the new functionality of Oracle Card 2.0, as well as enhanced multimedia capabilities. Furthermore, it will open, convert, and run Oracle Card 1.1 stacks, thus providing an upgrade path for current Oracle Card users.  Although the enterprise version of Oracle Media Objects is a new product, supported Oracle Card 1.1 customers will receive an upgrade free of charge.  

I hope this information is of use to you in making your plans for future developments in Oracle Card, I hope you are not inconvenienced by these changes and share my enthusiasm for these new developments. UNQUOTE In other words Oracle Card users have been dumped. Presumably there are not too many of them because there has not been any fuss in this newsgroup. I wonder how long the "enterprise" version will last. And I wonder why it should be a better front end than Visual Basic or Visual C++ together with a few judiciously bought-in controls. I can't see it standing up to the volume of applications that the VB market is capable of producing. I would expect that Card users to be finally cut off within 12 months if I'm right. Being charitable, what else would they do?

Tony Scott
(asc_at_cix.compulink.co.uk) Received on Wed Mar 30 1994 - 23:24:58 CEST