Comments on: Oracle Unbreakable Linux http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/02/18/oracle-unbreakable-linux/ Linux, politics, and other interesting things Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:36:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: etbe http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/02/18/oracle-unbreakable-linux/comment-page-1/#comment-12304 etbe Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:04:54 +0000 http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/02/18/oracle-unbreakable-linux/#comment-12304 Alan: I know that there are many heavy applications that use Oracle databases. But the vast majority of database installations are on the low end. My observation is that a good number of Oracle systems really have low end requirements. Of the systems that I've run which had Oracle installed, they all could have had flat-files used for their databases without any problems. Keep in mind the fact that VolksWagen bought Bentley, BMW bought Rolls-Royce Motors, and McDonalds is the world's most profitable "restaurant" chain. Any company that restricts itself to the high end risks becoming less profitable than one that caters for the majority of the market. Not that I expect Oracle to learn this before it's too late. IMHO an installation process that sucks on all platforms is not a good thing (being written in Java means that you first need to install Java). For a cross-platform language Perl is probably the best choice, most server Linux systems can't be installed or booted without it. Alan: I know that there are many heavy applications that use Oracle databases. But the vast majority of database installations are on the low end. My observation is that a good number of Oracle systems really have low end requirements. Of the systems that I’ve run which had Oracle installed, they all could have had flat-files used for their databases without any problems.

Keep in mind the fact that VolksWagen bought Bentley, BMW bought Rolls-Royce Motors, and McDonalds is the world’s most profitable “restaurant” chain. Any company that restricts itself to the high end risks becoming less profitable than one that caters for the majority of the market. Not that I expect Oracle to learn this before it’s too late.

IMHO an installation process that sucks on all platforms is not a good thing (being written in Java means that you first need to install Java). For a cross-platform language Perl is probably the best choice, most server Linux systems can’t be installed or booted without it.

]]> By: Alan Pope http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/02/18/oracle-unbreakable-linux/comment-page-1/#comment-12301 Alan Pope Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:34:04 +0000 http://etbe.coker.com.au/2008/02/18/oracle-unbreakable-linux/#comment-12301 Your experience of Oracle databases conflicts with my own. Over the last 10 years I've only worked on Oracle databases which are larger than a few hundred GB, many larger than a couple of TB, all with many thousands of tables. These are SAP installations which can (ab)use the database quite hard. Whilst I agree that the Oracle installer sucks, at least it's somewhat cross platform (being written in Java) and thus provides a consistent interface for those of us installing on Linux, Windows, AIX or whatever. Your experience of Oracle databases conflicts with my own. Over the last 10 years I’ve only worked on Oracle databases which are larger than a few hundred GB, many larger than a couple of TB, all with many thousands of tables. These are SAP installations which can (ab)use the database quite hard. Whilst I agree that the Oracle installer sucks, at least it’s somewhat cross platform (being written in Java) and thus provides a consistent interface for those of us installing on Linux, Windows, AIX or whatever.

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