Re: informix bashing

warren@hector.cc.bellcore.com (saccente,warren j) writes: >>everything. Without it we are dead, while Bell simply raises the rates. :-) >Bellcore has no rates to raise. True, we are owned by the various phone >companies, but we also must sell the systems that we build to these same >phone companies at a competitive cost. We are, in fact, a bit like a VAR >and any of you other VAR's can also sell systems to the phone companies. The :-) may have been missed. The point being that maintenance/support dollars sent to Informix by Bellcore does not represent anything significant as a % of sales. It's like the coffee money for some department. For a small VAR or any other small business the amount is more significant and needs to be properly cost justified in that light. No one minds spending money for real product. It is only when that real product does not perform as advertised that 'some' people get upset when they are asked to pay for it again and again in the form of maintenance. And as for the matter of selling to the Bell systems - legally, yes. That's how the world is supposed to work. In a perfect world, that is. In the real world we buy from the specs we create so that we can buy from whom we want, at the price we wish to pay. Let's not kid ourselves here. >Having said all that, let me restate the intention of my original email. >I could be wrong, but it seems to me that maybe there has been some jumping >on the band-wagon in rushing to bad-mouth informix support. I have zero experience with Informix - period. Yet, I did not see the mail or news as anti-support postings. Folks generally speak highly of support. The problem seems to be in the back office where policy is made and the support folks have little influence on. Fred -- Fred Rump | 'A little learning is a dangerous thing/Drink deep CompuData, Inc. | or taste not the Pierian spring' Alexander Pope 10501 Drummond Rd. | SCO Advanced Product Center Philadelphia, Pa. 19154| Internet: fred@COMPU.COM (215-824-3000)