Re: IIUG - Linux and Informix

carlton@iiug.org (Carlton Doe) wrote: :Sporadically an active CDI dialog encouraging Informix to port to Linux gets :underway. The International Informix User Group (IIUG) has announced and :initiated an IIUG Advocacy Program which is a channel for a collective voice :to escalate topics to Informix management for response. The IIUG Board :watches CDI activities and participates collectively and individually. Where :appropriate, we will ask Informix for an informal discussion or for a formal :comment on a particular issue. Such was the case with the issue of a Linux :port of products. : :Informix responded by reiterating that they have been consistent in their :position that to seriously consider this port, Informix must have a more :traditional single vendor source and business relationship to collaborate with :throughout the development, testing and for on-going support needs...to name a :few. Based on the Informix's position on this issue, the IIUG will continue :to watch the changing landscape and your CDI dialogs. But for now, we will :focus our efforts within the Advocacy Program to subjects where we can have :an impact on Informix's plans in the near future. I think this is very unfortunate. Do I see a problem in IIUG with the support of the low end? Does the IIUG have a suggestion for what the low end Informix users should do? Informix seems to have one of the following views of their current situation: 1. Informix does not think they have a problem at the low end. They believe that the ports to SCO Unix and Windows NT will do. I have said something about this before, and will now only say they are very far off, and don't understand their market if this is these case. 2. Informix doesn't care about the low end of the market. This is fair enough, and this seems to be their position. Again I have said before I think they will loose on this position. They will loose big time due to the many developers they are leaving out on the limb, and limited ability to find new ones. They will not only loose customers, but a large number of these customers will be sour and even embittered. A very unfortunate situation to be in for any company. It used to be that Informix was the most competitive database engine for the low end, and they could reach fairly high up. Now they are the best at the high end, but have left the low end more or less completely. They may not yet quite relize the extent of their losses at the low end. They will however, but it would be sad if that was through a rude awakening. There is no need for that, but that's the path on which they are now headed. If the above statement from Informix is essentially all they have to say it only goes to show they don't grasp the market, their own options, the oportunities nor the pitfalls. They need to at least *say* something more. They claim they need "a more traditional single vendor source and business relationship to collaborate with". Have they actually had serious discussions with any of the commercial Linux suppliers? Do they know that they can't get this kind of relationship? Also, have they realy thought the alternatives through? David Williams have stated he would be willing to port 4GL and SE to Linux essentially for free (he should get paied of course). He is able to do it, and from his activity here in c.d.i. he would probably even support it afterwards. (I would send him money if I needed support.) There are many others that could also help Informix with a port. Have Informix thought through the other alternatives they have? Like creating a less supported version for one Linux port only? Like farming out the support to some other company so they don't need to educate their own support people? Or other things they can do? My own situation may go to show some of the issues involved: I have a big application written in Informix 4GL. It can be used by small (very small) as well as very large customers. I have had major sales breakthrougs with this application lately. I can and will sell it to large customers. I can no longer sell it to the small ones due to the cost of hardware, OS and database engine required. I have a potential market of at least 10.000 customers over the next several years. (The total market is in the several 100.000 and I think I can take some percent of it.) Independent of the current issue over a Linux port I have decided to do further developments in Java, and will eventually have my whole application available in pure Java. I had planned to continue to use Informix database engines more or less exclusively. From the above I now know I have to change that radically. I will use another engine for the low end, and have other options for my customers at the high end. This also means I will hardly be able to utilize the Informix Universal Server as much as I would like to when that becomes available. I will have to keep my application as database independent as possible, and that will be hard using the Universal Server. I understand fully that I could reap a lot of benefits from using the Universal Server. Although I am currently not very interested in fancy datatypes like graphics and video, there are lots of other functionality I could utilize very effectively. I will live without them if it means I can't sell to a major part of my potential customers. I can not possibly be alone in the above described situation. If Informix want to behave the way they now do I have no great problems with it. I will survive and be well. It's Informix that has problems, not me, although my situation would have been better if Informix had understood their market just a little bit better. It's very very unfortunate if I have to say goodby to Informix in this way. After a relationship that have now lasted about 15 years (since the very beginning of Informix) I would not do it lightly. I have had my share of problems, but also a lot of rewards. One doesn't easily walk away from something like that. I am in bussiness however, and will do it without any further ado if Informix is walking away from me. I still believe that Informix is going to do something about this problem. With their current financial troubles, and organizational upheavals it's probably not an ideal time to talk to them about such new steps to take. However when the dust have settled a little and some new people have come into position we should talk to them again. This should happen within perhaps a month or so. If Informix requires more time than that to be able to again think about these issues they have more organizational problems than they should allow themselves to have. I will herby urge the IIUG to continue talking with Informix on this issue. You don't need to limit it to a Linux port alone, but talk to them seriously about the low end of the market. I will not be able to do much other than post here in c.d.i. until the user conference this summer. At that time I will however talk to my connections in Informix about these issues, and particularly to Phil White personally. I doubt he is sufficiently informed, and he might be willing to do something. We will see. :Please be aware that your suggestions are always welcome and