INFORMIX vs ORACLE: FAQs and Facts

To all: I recently posted a request for the Oracle vs Informix FAQ, which evidently does not exist, or has not been posted yet. I have received a large number of emails concerning this topic, all wanting to know the whereabouts of this FAQ. I found some INFORMIX literature this past week, and hope to get more recent info from them. I've asked myself the question, "Should I put together a FAQ on this topic?" Don't know. "Am I capable, and knowledgable enough? Don't know. I just don't get a good feeling about ORACLE even though the interface for Personal Objects looks nice, and the install goes real smooth...What about multithreaded processing and the virtual processors? How do these really differ NOW? How does it REALLY scale? And so on. In many cases user groups are not as in touch with the vendor as this one seems to be, so I've benefited greatly also from the INFORMIX folk who've given their time to respond. And I will be in touch with them in person this week. After the original post I have been gathering materials in an effort to understand the issues based in facts, but this is a very time consuming task. I have therefore considered once again turning to this group and asking if you would supply your best tidbits on product comparisons regarding these two software products. Real world stories seem to be the most valuable part of the picture. A couple I've received off-line are great, I hope to hear more. The diverse mix of folks using INFORMIX products should allow a wide variety of experience. To help give your response focus, I thought maybe one simple question might help you form an opinion worthy of comment: What one reason do you think of that kept your shop from buying Oracle? You don't need to limit it to this question, but quite possibly this could help educate us all in understanding the issues. Here's a couple more questions: If you had to do it all over again, would you buy Oracle NOW? What one benefit does ORACLE have that INFORMIX doesn't have? If I'm not in your kill file, I would hope you respond, and post your comments. Even if you don't respond to me directly I can tell you the email this topic has generated is worth your time to post to the group. :-) Tim \\\\|// (6 9) ==============================---o00--(_)--00o---============================ Tim Schaefer (800)587-9502 http://www.gate.net/~tschaefe The Computer Business Company, Inc. tschaefe@gate.net =============================================================================