Oracle Express
Posted in 2008
A user in South Africa was told by management to migrate standalone Informix 9.x/Windows XP apps to Oracle's free Express Edition, and asked whether Informix offered an equivalent free product. The answer: IBM has an IDS Express Edition (Linux/Windows, limited CPUs/RAM, IDS 10/11) that is cheaper than Workgroup/Enterprise but not free — roughly £3,500 per dual-core server or Authorized User licensing with a five-user minimum (~£600 per machine, counting users rather than connections). Others suggested PostgreSQL (disputed) and warned that migration and testing costs plus risk may outweigh the licence savings. No firm decision is recorded.
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Topics: General Discussion
Oracle Express Due to licensing problems we have been instructed by our management to convert some of our standalone applications that is currently running Informix 9.x (on Windows XP) to Oracle Express. If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy any licensing fees. A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? Kind Regards David Reed
>> "David Reed" <David.Reed@tollink.co.za> wrote in message >> news:mailman.306.1226312980.874.informix-list@iiug.org... Oracle Express Due to licensing problems we have been instructed by our management to convert some of our standalone applications that is currently running Informix 9.x (on Windows XP) to Oracle Express. If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy any licensing fees. >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? There is an IDS Express Edition, minumum 2 cpus (probably 4 cores actually), 4g RAM, available only on Linux or Windows, and I think only in IDS 10 or 11, that's less expensive that Workgroup or Enterprise, but not free. Read about it here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/ids-ed-choice/ List it's about '3,500 for a dual-core cpu server, or you licence per registered user (minumum 5) at '120 each. You're in S Africa I think? I can do you a deal if you're interested, I'm sure. rgds Neil
Hi Neil Thanks, yes we are in South Africa. Does this mean that my cheapest buy would be (£120x5) £600 per computer that I use. I always have only 2 users that is logon to the system (1 is Informix, the other is the actual user), my problem is that I make on average about 7 different connections to the database, and now I must buy 10user licence for each computer? Regards David -----Original Message----- From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Neil Truby Sent: 10 November 2008 12:49 PM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Re: Oracle Express >> "David Reed" <David.Reed@tollink.co.za> wrote in message >> news:mailman.306.1226312980.874.informix-list@iiug.org... Oracle Express Due to licensing problems we have been instructed by our management to convert some of our standalone applications that is currently running Informix 9.x (on Windows XP) to Oracle Express. If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy any licensing fees. >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? There is an IDS Express Edition, minumum 2 cpus (probably 4 cores actually), 4g RAM, available only on Linux or Windows, and I think only in IDS 10 or 11, that's less expensive that Workgroup or Enterprise, but not free. Read about it here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/ids-ed-choice/ List it's about £3,500 for a dual-core cpu server, or you licence per registered user (minumum 5) at £120 each. You're in S Africa I think? I can do you a deal if you're interested, I'm sure. rgds Neil _______________________________________________ Informix-list mailing list Informix-list@iiug.org http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
It's Authorised User rather than the more common Concurrent Session model, so you'd need to buy 5 of those. "David Reed" <David.Reed@tollink.co.za> wrote in message news:mailman.307.1226317748.874.informix-list@iiug.org... Hi Neil Thanks, yes we are in South Africa. Does this mean that my cheapest buy would be ('120x5) '600 per computer that I use. I always have only 2 users that is logon to the system (1 is Informix, the other is the actual user), my problem is that I make on average about 7 different connections to the database, and now I must buy 10user licence for each computer? Regards David -----Original Message----- From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Neil Truby Sent: 10 November 2008 12:49 PM To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Re: Oracle Express >> "David Reed" <David.Reed@tollink.co.za> wrote in message >> news:mailman.306.1226312980.874.informix-list@iiug.org... Oracle Express Due to licensing problems we have been instructed by our management to convert some of our standalone applications that is currently running Informix 9.x (on Windows XP) to Oracle Express. If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy any licensing fees. >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? There is an IDS Express Edition, minumum 2 cpus (probably 4 cores actually), 4g RAM, available only on Linux or Windows, and I think only in IDS 10 or 11, that's less expensive that Workgroup or Enterprise, but not free. Read about it here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/ids-ed-choice/ List it's about '3,500 for a dual-core cpu server, or you licence per registered user (minumum 5) at '120 each. You're in S Africa I think? I can do you a deal if you're interested, I'm sure. rgds Neil _______________________________________________ Informix-list mailing list Informix-list@iiug.org http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
On Nov 10, 4:29 am, "David Reed" <David.R...@tollink.co.za> wrote: > Oracle Express [SNIP] > A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" > type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? > > Kind Regards > > David Reed Why? Total boneheaded management. If you're looking to go "free" meaning no need to spend money on support, go with PostgresSQL which is released under BSD licensing. There are risks so you had better be sure that you know your systems and understand the impact of a system failure or some other catastrophic event.
Ian Michael Gumby wrote: > On Nov 10, 4:29 am, "David Reed" <David.R...@tollink.co.za> wrote: >> Oracle Express > [SNIP] >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? >> >> Kind Regards >> >> David Reed > > Why? > > Total boneheaded management. > If you're looking to go "free" meaning no need to spend money on > support, go with PostgresSQL which is released under BSD licensing. Sorry Ian but that's nonsense. PostgreSQL does not provide the vast majority of capabilities available in Oracle Express including its seamless compatibility with enterprise programs. You can mourn the loss of an Informix customer but don't point the user to a road that provides a path to nowhere. -- Daniel A. Morgan University of Washington damorgan@x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond)
David Reed wrote: > Oracle Express > > Due to licensing problems we have been instructed by our management to > convert some of our standalone applications that is currently running > Informix 9.x (on Windows XP) to Oracle Express. > > If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig > RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy > any licensing fees. You may not have to pay licensing fees but you will have to pay someone to do *and test* the conversion. Given the risks inherent in fixing what isn't broken there would have to be a *lot* of testing. So...invoke the standard operating procedure for such situations: Produce a project plan which will cost about the same as sorting out the licensing (comparative figures included), will mention the word "risk" several times, will evaluate the possibility that you might have to pay license fees (check Oracle's T&Cs carefully and estimate the probability of going over the limits, e.g. > 4Gig database) and, ideally, take resources away from the some senior manager's pet product. Under the circumstances you will naturally need a sign-off for a project which will save so little, eat up resources and involve undue risk, all to fix what isn't broken. -- Ian Hotmail is for spammers. Real mail address is igoddard at nildram co uk
LOL... Daniel, If you can use a stripped down version of Oracle or DB2, then you can use Postgress to handle the job. You're just blowing smoke. > Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:50:12 -0800 > From: damorgan@psoug.org > Subject: Re: Oracle Express > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > Ian Michael Gumby wrote: > > On Nov 10, 4:29 am, "David Reed" <David.R...@tollink.co.za> wrote: > >> Oracle Express > > [SNIP] > >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" > >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? > >> > >> Kind Regards > >> > >> David Reed > > > > Why? > > > > Total boneheaded management. > > If you're looking to go "free" meaning no need to spend money on > > support, go with PostgresSQL which is released under BSD licensing. > > Sorry Ian but that's nonsense. PostgreSQL does not provide the vast > majority of capabilities available in Oracle Express including its > seamless compatibility with enterprise programs. > > You can mourn the loss of an Informix customer but don't point the > user to a road that provides a path to nowhere. > -- > Daniel A. Morgan > University of Washington > damorgan@x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond) > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list _________________________________________________________________ Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/
On Nov 11, 1:53 am, Ian Michael Gumby <im_gu...@hotmail.com> wrote: > LOL... > > Daniel, > > If you can use a stripped down version of Oracle or DB2, then you can use Postgress to handle the job. > > You're just blowing smoke. > > > > > > > Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:50:12 -0800 > > From: damor...@psoug.org > > Subject: Re: Oracle Express > > To: informix-l...@iiug.org > > > Ian Michael Gumby wrote: > > > On Nov 10, 4:29 am, "David Reed" <David.R...@tollink.co.za> wrote: > > >> Oracle Express > > > [SNIP] > > >> A colleague has told me that he is sure that Informix have a "similar" > > >> type of product. Can someone please clarify for me? > > > >> Kind Regards > > > >> David Reed > > > > Why? > > > > Total boneheaded management. > > > If you're looking to go "free" meaning no need to spend money on > > > support, go with PostgresSQL which is released under BSD licensing. > > > Sorry Ian but that's nonsense. PostgreSQL does not provide the vast > > majority of capabilities available in Oracle Express including its > > seamless compatibility with enterprise programs. > > > You can mourn the loss of an Informix customer but don't point the > > user to a road that provides a path to nowhere. > > -- > > Daniel A. Morgan > > University of Washington > > damor...@x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond) > > _______________________________________________ > > Informix-list mailing list > > Informix-l...@iiug.org > >http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list > > _________________________________________________________________ > Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Livehttp://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - Once again. The person posting (ORIGINAL) is asking for direction NOT PERSONAL VENDETTA. Neil wants to make a deal and the rest is too happy to take Gumbo apart - for good reason perhaps Is there anyone that can help!? I doubt it. Not in this group without $USD ... He clearly said - - - (between the lines, that cost is a problem) ------------------------------------------------- If we conform to a few rules/limitations like: 4Gig database limit; 1Gig RAM; Only 1 CPU; single database a computer, etc. We don't need to buy any licensing fees. ------------------------------------------------- BUT and MARK Townsend will correct me shortly, as will OTC. I am sure that with ORACLE (or IBM / MS, etc ) no matter what you use, when you do put it in a PRODUCTION ENV YOU HAVE TO PAY LICNSE FEES. Cheapest? MySQL?