Re: Future of Informix.

>Sun have just finished as seminar type thing in Switzerland where one of >the lectures should have been titled 'Why TPC benchmarks are meaningless >in the real world'. I read the bottom line as if you want to use >benchmark results to decide on platforms and applications do it yourself >in an environment you know. They're pretty much right, too. A benchmark takes significant time, money, and energy to do properly, and the end result is so skewed to the original assumptions that the results are worthless. The only benchmark that means anything is the one you do after you've bought the products and written your application. Personally I would prefer that they spend their time and money on making better products. Informix is still ahead of the game technology wise; I hope they stay there. Unfortunately we are finding that for our purposes the AS400 is looking really, really nice at the moment. As a result, future development will most likely be on it and not on the HP/Informix we've used up to now. This decision is based on a greatly reduced cost of the hardware/software mix (both in purchase and maintenance costs) and the desire to get away from the incredibly silly support policies of Informix. A single source gives us one 800 number to call, one customer number to reference for ALL problems, and one bill to pay at the end of the year, with little to no negotiation and wrangling. All in all, it is not technology, nor even the perceived ability of Informix to survive that is driving us away. It is cost (less than half overall per year between hardware and software) and support issues (no more changing serial numbers and "I'm sorry your database is not working properly, but you have to talk to somebody else" issues). And before that yahoo Boris signs on again, Informix will survive and be a much stronger company after their problems. Besides, the AS400 is kind of fun, in a perverse sort of way. David