Re: Informix running on Linux

Richard Stanford wrote: > > Well, that's what WGS is for (though they're not really publisizing it well). > Same fscking code as 7.2 and only $295 per user, d/l off the website for crying > out loud. Multi platform release later this year (if not already) and the > only crippleware feature about it is the 2 RISC / 4 CISC processor limit. > OK, have you tried OWGS? :-) It's not the same as a real UNIX working with NT. I have similar joy taping my thumbs to my wrists when it comes to NT. It just isn't the same as UNIX, and OWGS is not a "complete" product, compared to the UNIX version. Much of the UNIX version is omitted from the OWGS version. I like much of the interface with OWGS however just going out to the shell to do work, you're back in DOS land. It's a shame. I don't even want to work on it because of the shell. And yes, I have MKS toolkit, but it's not the same as a real UNIX. Softway is on my system, but I haven't activated it yet--I'm afraid of what it's going to do to performance or the registry. Softway has announced their latest version of their NT-to-UNIX glomming software, that helps morph NT into a UNIX. But this is an additional software component that has to be ADDED on. Why not just use UNIX--Linux in this case--and save the hassle. Memory requirements are even more critical, especially if you add an HTTPD, like Netscape, and a few other "services" to the heap. NT swaps to disk as a part of the standard operating procedure. It's a sloppy operating system. It really gets expensive. Windows NT is just too expensive for the small business, and way too inefficient for the hardware. You can't buy enough memory for it. My Linux system has swap space it never uses. Most of us would probably be able to market cheap affordable 4GL solutions again with Linux, or be able to develop scalable client/server apps with a cheap UNIX where Informix 7.x--the complete package--is running. I can't do 4GL with NT. 4GL isn't right for a lot of sites, but it persists for quite a few others. There are many sites where a GUI is not needed or wanted. At least with Linux I can set up a low cost server running Linux, and use Windows PCs to either do client/server GUIs or telnets for 4GLs. It's so simple, and a scaled down path just like we do with the bigger systems. > It may not be free, but its cheap (comparitively). Now that idea about a > standalone Informix distribution, though... hrm... > It's cheap for the OWGS software, but the hardware will eat you alive in memory and other software. NT is not a small-scale proposition anymore. And MS is putting all kinds of licensing restrictions on NT that didn't used to exist. In 3.51 you could get away with some creative licensing strategies but 4.0 has a tighter, more painful licensing strategy. You really are at the mercy of Microsoft. In the history of the business I have never seen such a confusing message coming from Informix. It all started about the time New Era came along. This is when they got into trouble. They seem to have forgotten that the majority of businesses out there are not big corporations, and that most of us don't need object orientated data bases or GUIs just yet--at least not at the prices they want. Maybe in a more captive market this strategy works, but not in the market I work in. Yes, it's time for some marketing innovation to come along with the whizbang software innovation. It's not like the actual cost to port the software is going to hurt them. Take a look at Oracle's web page: www.oracle.com Take a look at Informix's web page: www.informix.com See what the emphasis is for both of these. Without too much analysis you can see who's reaching out. If Informix wants to play the "database salon" for the elite, they should just say so, and I'll all move along quietly. :-) > > Tim > > -Richard -- Tim Schaefer \\\\|// tschaefe@mindspring.com (6 6) ------------------------oOOo---( )---o00o--------- http://www.mindspring.com/~tschaefe