Re: Beware! the days of Oracle may be numbered

"KeyStroke (Jack L. Swayze Sr.)" <KeyStrk_at_feist.com> wrote:

: The only difference, for me, is that I can now spot the trend early
: enough to do something about it before the head-hunters get to a point
: where they wont return my calls (if I were to call one).

[snip]

: I have abandoned learning anything new about Oracle, put all my Oracle
: books on the shelf with my DB2 books, and my IDMS books. And I have
: started buying books on MS SQL server 7 and reading them.

An interesting post. I also want to keep myself current, and keeping one's head in the sand is not a good strategy especially in a fast changing IT world.

I agree that Oracle may no longer be the hot ticket some day. Maybe even soon. But I question what you consider will be its replacement. The corporate world is moving *away* from Microsoft products and towards the Open Source paradigm, not toward it. This trend is illustrated by the explosive growth in Linux-based servers in '98 and the large number of software ports announced by major ISV's. This trend is not only going to continue, but accelerate greatly in the years 1999 and 2000.

I think we'll be safe with Oracle for the time being. They are supporting the emerging trends in Open Source platforms, and unless an Open Source RDBMS product is seen as being a better alternative (Postgresql might have a chance with continued development), I think our Oracle skillsets will remain in demand for some time to come.

(Although I am trying to get experience with Open Source, free, or lowcost RDMBS solutions like Postgresql, Mysql, etc. which often do incredible jobs for many applications and a huge, expensive beast like Oracle just isn't necessary).

I think I'll leave the MS-SQL books where they belong: in the bookstore.

--------------< LINUX: The choice of a GNU generation. >-------------- Steve Frampton <3srf@qlink.queensu.ca> http://qlink.queensu.ca/~3srf Received on Sat Mar 13 1999 - 13:53:15 CST