Re: IIUG - Linux and Informix
Carlton, The IIUG cannot stop here, and the ask the expert session at the IWUC is not the right place to raise the issue. To start with, many of us will not be there (The good news: I won't go. The bad: Tim will, and I trust him to speak for me, too :-). Next, this is not a technical issue, but a commercial one. As for waiting a couple of month before discussing the issue, well it could just be too late, then. Informix should do something *now*, and something eclatant. The IWUC should be a moment in which Informix tries to capture the attention of new and old customers, with new and appealing announcements. Not exactly the appropriate climax, right now: with this kind of "chiaro di luna" (moonlight), as they say in Catania, I strongly doubt that the horde of prospective customers Informix claims will attend the conference actually will. Also, as Nils eloquently pointed out in his reply to your previous posting, the issue of Linux ports and Informix turning it's back to the low end market (irrespective of the port) are two separate issues. I, like Nils, have a big app (used to run a radiotherapy department, as you may guess) written using 4gl, and have chosen Informix some 8 years ago since they were the best database on the low-end market (Just think about this: the average RT department in Italy could do with only 8 users, a big one with 16) and could scale very well at the high end. Informix has decided to throw 4gl in the dust-bin (mistake #1) and decided to make the low end market pay Informix products thru the nose (mistake #2) as a result, small installations are not buying Informix products. To be more clear, we are the only RT department in Italy using Informix products. Others (Including the *Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, the Pope's private clinic*) have seen my product, have said "Neat, how much do we have to pay to have it here?", have heard the price and stuck to whatever they had! (there's even a site using filing assistant, no kidding) We will not upgrade to OnLine 7. In the early nineties, the market was full of small developers using Informix products who would produce and sell applications to small clients, enhancing Informix sales. At these prices, this will not come back, and Informix will even loose the support and upgrades it is selling to small developers, as they will turn to other products. As for Nils, abandoning Informix will be very sad for me should I have to, as Informix has great products. But it's Informix asking for our roads to depart, not me. Don't want to support Linux, then be SCO, but *at reasonable prices*. My sales will be your sales. As for Linux, DSA, 4gl, etc, should be ported not because it's free, but because it' *good* (in fact better than many other OS's), and it scales better at the low end. And please don't forget that I can't run 4gl apps on NT, so don't tell that small installations are already been catered for. It goes by itself that this should be an inexpensive port, and a highly resonant move. Given the current situation, Informix should start bragging about the Linux port (much the way they did with the IUS) as soon as they have the certainty they can successfully complete it. The only reason I can see for Informix to continue ignoring Linux is strategic alliances and this sort of crap. Microsoft wouldn't be that happy to see a major DB vendor playing with Linux would it? And so would SCO with their current free offer (study it, use it, and then sell it for us - doesn't that teach anything to Informix?) As for the *polite* bit, everybody in this forum has been asking for the same thing (OK, with some intemperance :-). I have seen no flames. What this and other threads are missing is a clear and official statement from Informix. So, maybe Tim Shetler, Don Top, and why not, Phil White himself should illustrate Informix views in this forum. After all, Informix needs to understand that *we* are among the first that need to be reassured about the way things are going. Please, for ours and Informix sake, don't stop the discussion. Ciao, Marco ____________________________________________________________________________ Marco Greco <marcog@ctonline.it> rem radioterapia 39 95 447828 fax 446558 Informix-FAQ http://www.iiug.org 4glWorks http://www.ctonline.it/~marcog --- On 2 May 1997 16:52:22 GMT DBA Resources <dbaresrc@xmission.xmission.com> wrote: To Nils, Marco, Tim and others who have responded personally as well as publicly to me on this issue: The issues surrounding the technical viability of a Linux port can be raised **politely** during the Ask The Experts session the IIUG is sponsoring during the 1997 Informix Worldwide User Conference. With Tim Shetler, VP of Product Development and Don Top, Director of OnLine Kernel Development available to respond, you should be able to get a better perspective of the issues from Informix's point of view. Carlton ______________________________________________________________________ Carlton Doe "It's not *over* until I win!" DBA Resources, Inc. -- Les Brown Salt Lake City, UT carlton@iiug.org http://www.iiug.org dbaresrc@xmission.com http://www.xmission.com/~dbaresrc carlton@errin.dbaresrc.com PGP key: finger -l dbaresrc@xmission.com -----------------End of Original Message-----------------