Re: Informix running on Linux

Denham.M@amstr.com wrote: > > As far as running Informix on linux is concerned, I am not surprised that Informix > have not ported to it. > > One good reason for not doing so is the way linux is supported. Until recently this > was largely achieved by talented part-timers with enough enthusiasm to dig into > problems. > > If you run into a problem, you can generally be assured that someone, sometime will > solve it. All you have to do is wait. Even some businesses are prepared to work with > software maintained in this way. > > Compare this to the relationship that informix undoubtedly have with the likes of HP > and Sun. I would be surprised if their partnerships do not include some sort of > service level agreements over OS bug resolution. This is probably an essential > ingredient in the effort to maintain service to customers. > > If it were my company, I would probably not be too keen to port to linux either. > > No doubt I am in for an ear bending here. > > Mark > > MarkDenham@aol.com (home) > Denham.M@amstr.com (work) > --------------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )--------------------- [Jonathans' comments only excluded for brevity not for value] Mark, It's great to see some more life come into this discussion. I'm so thankful to see more people get in on this. Your comments as well as the others are extremely important to furthering the maturity of this topic. AlDevs' PostGres information has been good too. What I'm hoping for is that enough people will get beyond the red herring of Linux support--and this is not a slam against what you've said. What I see you and others talk about is exactly why <I> stayed away from Linux. For some strange reason I felt like Linux was somehow, some way, inferior to the commercial Unixes, for one reason of "lack of support". By god if I didn't get a commercial UNIX, I was somehow at great peril. Another reason I had was that it may not have some feature that exists with my commercial UNIX. Both these reasons are unfounded. These were valid arguments probably a year ago, or maybe even 2 yrs ago, but not today. This "peril" issue is valid, and worthy of concern. However, I think the Linux community has furthered the improvement and quality of Linux by the maximum access to the software. This would also work for Informix, because we do see other vendors with great success using this marketing model. Other recent posts have talked about this. There are enough support models currently available that Informix can easily adopt one, and have business success documentation to prove the case for its' success. Probably most end-users who would use the Linux version of Informix will understand the issues surrounding this release well enough not to ask for "free" support. Most will probably be willing to pay for it, as long as it's not overpriced. For those out there who use support as an argument--and I'm not suggesting you directly Mark--I really encourage you to at least evaluate Linux in the flesh. Download the Slackware distribution or get a CD with it, and install it on an OLD PC, if you must, or evena low-power Pentium. This will be a great test, and compare it against one of your more powerful systems. Look at all the stuff it comes with. Test it for speed. Watch what it does, with the 'top' command, or memstat, or vmstat, etc. and compare it with your other UNIXes. Then ask yourself if the support problem is real, or just a knee-jerk response we've all had from the past. I think if you actually see the reality that Linux is making UNIX inexpensive and mainstream, yet high quality, then you begin to see why I among others are sold on it. My brother will vouch for my skepticism of Linux, and it really is something you will believe in when you see it and use it. If <I> can be sold on it, then I know many of you out there will be too. Tim -- Tim Schaefer \\\\|// tschaefe@mindspring.com (6 6) ------------------------oOOo---( )---o00o--------- http://www.inxutil.com