Re: Informix running on Linux

On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, Tim Schaefer wrote: > Good point, however, we can wait for something that will never be. The > opportunity for Informix to distribute their own kernel is here. There's > no need to worry about "who's" distribution. This is the real future, I believe. After all, Informix Online already handles its own Disk IO, Threading, et cetera. > But this is new ground for all of us. Data base products can be viewed as > a commodity as much as operating systems as much as hardware. > > Think about it. The data base software is available basically for no cost. > But the support and licensing are available on a scalable cost basis. This > is heresy to even suggest, however, we see this model being applied to > Netscape products, and other software. The current internet "web-week" > thinking is looking constantly to market penetration FIRST, then licensing, > which is counter to accepted thought. It's what confuses the hell out of > everybody. This would be interesting. And I have heard some rumblings (from Informix people, moderately well informed) that IUS may be released as more of a mass-market product, a la WGS. > Instead of getting your money up front, you build consensus of your product, > develop a standard, and license your products on a scaled basis. You develop > a standard, which can be extremely risky for a start-up, but for an established > vendor it's really low risk, just like spreading seed on a field. This is an interesting approach. > Some, probably most of the seeds will sprout, and produce, some, a much smaller > per centage, will probably not make it. But it is a time tested method, that > trancends products, computers, or even people. It's a natural law. Oh, the distribution would be there, but would it be financially successful? > Informix wants to build Universal Server consensus from the top down, which > is an extremely risky proposition. New Era flops, chokes and sputters on > this model. It did not cycle through developer channels first, building > a ground-swell of approval by the very people who would use it. It's a counter > productive way of doing business. But what's interesting is that they probably > are letting the big gun companies use Universal Server for free right now, > BUILDING CONSENSUS. So, I know this concept is probably unavoidable. Really big gun companies. Personally, I'd love to get a copy of IUS in for eval, beta test (or whatever they're calling betatesting at Informix these days). Maybe later this year... [Sigh] > I'm saying that if 7.x is EVER going to go into wide-band acceptance, ESPECIALLY > on the small business side, it needs to adopt the wide-band-dispersion strategy > or it will soon be just another version of Informix that is for big systems, and > the rest of the MAJORITY of businesses out here will have to choose MS products or > Oracle or even worse Sybase. They'll reach out, get the business, and the > opportunity for Informix will once again have been missed. 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. It may not be free, but its cheap (comparitively). Now that idea about a standalone Informix distribution, though... hrm... > Tim -Richard