Re: Informix running on Linux

I've been following this entire thread with much interest, but have been reticent to post. I admit foremost that I am not an informix user. In fact, I'm not even a DBA. I'm a network admin at Mindspring, where I work on our mail, web, news, etc. servers, working on network monitoring, DNS admin, etc. I also run our firewalls. What does informix have to do with me? Well, first of all I'm a Linux user. Having informix available would make it much easier for me to evangelize it to small business people who need a computing solution. (Just for fun, I've set up small mail/web servers for people I know and stuff like that.) That's not the real reason why I want Informix for Linux, though. I want it because I could really use it. I have all sorts of applications (a registry of all of our hosts, our DNS server, security logging, system logging in general), where I could really use a _real_ database system. E.g., right now I'm writing a registry in which we will store info about all of our server machines. In it will be OS revision data, patch history, installed software (does it have perl? which version? which modules/extensions?), ip data, services offered (does it offer SMTP service? Does it offer SMTP relay?, etc.) I'm probably going to do this in msql or the new gnusql. Yeah, they suck, but what else can I do? We do this sort of stuff on x86 boxes, period. We are not going to buy a $15k sparc box which is less powerful than a $2k pentium, because doing so is very stupid, and I don't like wasting my employer's money. Am I going to take my $2k x86 box, put another $2k of RAM on it, and run NT? Unfortunately, blue screens and I don't get along together very well. If there were a cheap Informix port available, or a free, very stripped down version, then I'd buy it in a sec. Put as many restrictions on the free version as you want. Offer no support. I don't mind. How does this benefit Informix? Every little web page, every little monitoring system, every little firewall setup on the planet will be using Informix. When they start growing, they start buying licenses. If my monitoring system grows, would I mind paying a few $k for a license? Hell, no. The system has already proven it's stability by that point, and the money is well worth it. Am I going to pay a few $k for every little system I build? No, I'm not. Before you know it, I have really robust, powerful tools for administering our servers. We send Informix $10k/year for various licenses, and don't mind a bit. Right now, we send no database vendor any money. Why aren't databases used more extensively in operational contexts like mine? Because most systems are thrown together in a few days and grow from there. Since 90% of them die sooner rather than later, it doesn't make sense to do extensive planning or, more importantly, advanced capital outlay on something I can do with perl, msql, and a random x86. If Informix were available under Linux and ubiquitous in the way that Tim Schaefer suggests, then I would use it for everything, because the value added is so great. When my Dad needs an inventory system for his store back home, I'll shell out a few $k, buy him a license, and run it under Linux. That's a lot easier when I use Informix in my day-to-day work than when I play with databases when I get some free time. (The idea here is that if the Linux port is free or nominal cost, even in cripple-ware form, people will start using it in droves. This builds familiarity with Informix on the part of hard-core admin and programmer types, which leads to tons of sales when these people setup systems. These people set up a _lot_ of systems. It will also lead to sales when these people build big systems, which _will_ be informix based.) My firewalls? The logging and event detection would be completely informix based. Oh yeah, I'd throw in Kerberos-protected network sessions if I could see enough of the code to do it. (Or I'd write a kluge to kerberos-protect database functions if I couldn't modify the dabatase.) Our DNS server? It'd use Informix instead of it's stupid flat ASCII files. Anyway, the Linux community will, I think, be responsive to whatever features (kernel features, user environ) that Informix needs. The distribution people would bend over backwards for Informix. The Linux vendors would foam at the mouth for the chance to have a "conventional Informix <-> vendor relationship" with Informix. And I, your ordinary everyday Linux user, would become an Informix user, as would millions of other serious Linux users out there. If that doesn't lead to increased sales, I don't know what does. $0.02., cat flames > /dev/null. -- Todd Graham Lewis Linux! Core Engineering MindSpring Enterprises tlewis@mindspring.com (800) 719 4664, x2804