Re: WARNING: Say "NO" to patched

Rebuttal time --- ;-) Mike has some very good points, and I can't totally dis-reguard them. However, if all things are equal and the customer had a choice between an interim that has gone through a full QA test suite (that takes over a month to complete) and a patch, which makes more sense? >Madison Pruet wrote: > >> I'm still completly baffeled when a customer insists on staying on an older >> release, say 7.12, and prefersl patches instead of migrating to a more >> current >> release, with the patch in place, which has gone through the complete QA >test >> suite. But it still happens ... Quite a mystery. > >I think the Informix engine is great, and that you have a wonderful >product, but I HATE the way you do your releases. > >Here's why I don't rush to put on the latest release: > >1. I'm completely baffled as to the compatibility of your engine > releases with my compiled 4gl and esql/c applications. No one at > Informix seems to be able to tell me what I need to do to upgrade to > a new engine release. If I go from 7.11 for instance to 7.23, do > I need to: > > a. recompile my 4gl and esql/c programs that were compiled on 7.11 and > compatible esql/c and 4gl software? > b. install new esql/c and 4gl runtime software? > >2. We buy much of our application software from 3rd party vendors. If we > upgrade the engine and then have a failure, the vendor's stock reply is > "we haven't certified our application for that release of Informix." > It's very frustrating and expensive to try to coordinate an upgrade > or a patch with our vendors. > >3. We have 250 stores with online and a 4gl runtime plus another 2 dozen > instances at headquarters, labs, training centers, etc. Trying to > upgrade is a logistical nightmare ( software distribution, coordinating > down time, automating the process, follow up, etc. ). > >I can put up with the logistics nightmare (3), but the issue with vendors >and especially the issue with software compatibility is major for us. >Please tell me I'm worrying about nothing. Tell me that I can upgrade to >new releases without worry about recompiling. I just wish there were more >info available on compatibility between releases. >Mike Ballentine Madison Pruet