Richard Mendoza <rmendoza_at_titan.com> writes
> For almost all of the past week I've been going rounds with
> Oracle on a subject that might interest some of you. Oracle as
> a corporation has taken the position that if you purchase and
> install a single financial system (GL) you must also install the
> databases and stored procedures for all of there other systems.
> I am told by many in Oracle support that, and here's a quote from
> at least 4 people in support) 'That's the way it is and there's
> nothing you can do about it' (Now there's some good customer
> relations).
> So in effect what there telling you is Oracle is so big now they
> can prevent you from installing third party software and there's
> nothing you can do about it.
> If Oracle persists on this hardline stance I think the US Attorney
> Generals office should be asked to investigate Oracle. These large
> software companies cannot be allowed to tell you what you can or
> cannot put on your computer systems.
I feel very comfortable that Oracle will NOT be investigated by the
attorney general over this packaging issue. I have installed these
products and asked the same questions that you did about what could I
delete to save space on my system. The Oracle engineers did not have any
idea. They would have had to go through every line of code, forms,
reports, etc. to see what could be deleted and it was not worth it. What
we have here is a clear case of bundling unnecessary data tables and
stored procedures in with a software system where you might only want one
package. It is annoying as hell to DBAs and system administrators who are
constantly under pressure for more disk space, but it is not illegal. You
can still go out and buy an hundred copies of SAP financials and run it on
the same host computer. Our only defense as DBAs, developers, etc. is to
make this known on newgroups such as this so that other DBAs who are
evaluating financial systems can bring this up when the sales reps call.
If enough deals fall through because of packaging that makes life easy for
the developers of the installation script but harder for the people who
use the system, then the powers that be at Oracle will force their people
to build installation scripts that only install what is necessary.
Besides, the attorney general is already busy defending herself (as is
everyone else in Washington) from all sorts of charges, so there is
probably no time to go on the offensive against Oracle.
