Re: Difference Between Microsoft SQL and Oracle

>>>>> "los" == los <los123_at_yahoo.com> writes:

 los> What is the difference, in a nutshell between these two RDBMS's
 los> . Are they both for very large databases. Is Oracle more
 los> prevelant in the Corporate environment?

Whats the difference between an apple and an orange? Does one taste better than the other?

Impossible question to answer. You need to look at what your requirements are and then evaluate the differences based on how they meet your requirements. Microsoft will say theirs is better and it is good for large database apps, but so will Oracle. Personal taste, experience etc also plays a part. For me, I've never been able to get a Microsoft based platform to meet the performance and stability I expect from any system without doing what I feel is way too much maintenance and attention. However, this could just be a symptom of my lack of knowledge about all the little MS secrets which you only seem to get to know once your a member of the guild and have been taught the secret handshake. On the other hand, I've found UNIX to be straight forward and much easier to maintain, so I will prefer a solution which can run on a *nix platform. Yet I have friends which seem very competant at MS, but just can't seem to come to grips with *nix. Therefore, whatever solution you choose should be one in which you have staff with the necessary expertise etc.

I tend to feel Oracle can be overkill in small to medium db applications. It is in an environment with a number of large database applications it really begins to shine. I'd be very careful of database neutral applications - those which are supposed to run on any SQL compliant dbms as they tend to cater to the lowest common denominator and often bypass the specific features which give a particular db any advantages etc. Sometimes it can be better to work out what application best suits your requirements and then select the dbms which it supports.

-- 
Tim Cross
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