Re: Help to Promote Linux! - Economics....

> > > I don't see a real market for Online (OWS and the works) on Linux. > Because if you are going to use databases that big then you probably want > to use mirroring and a volume manager. And having Big Money in a > database justify to invest more money to keep it save. > Actually there is a market for OWS and ODS.Based on the price structure, one would have to charge more for a c-isam or SE port. (Anticipated costs over the anticipated sales) would be higher for these products. While SE is a tank, like a Soviet T-72, it wouldn't sell as many copies. OWS offers a better performance and ODS is full blown. 1-5 USER License? Feh! You could run a 20 - 30 user system on a pentium box. You may consider Linux to be low end, however we don't. Imagine placing two network cards within a series of boxes. One to reach your regular network, the other a 100 MBit private network for your *cluster*. Even on a 7.x (Excuse me thats the old lingo. ;-) you could preprocess the results and create a parallel database with comperable performance of XPS. The preprocessing is from a third party, but I forget the name. I would love to see XPS ported as well. Each pentium node would be faster than the RS/6000 nodes in an SP2 albiet the controlling software would not be as nice. While everyone knocks Informix, in the retail industry, Informix is still big. For Kent and retail chains, a linux box controlling the POS system, and the local inventory, is a reality. Thus the TCO is already half of a Micrsloth solution. Even if you were running Informix on NT! > There is a way where informix could benefit from the Linux model, > Since 4gl is called a end of life product hand over the 4gl code under > GPL to the Unix/Internet community and let them work on it. This way informix > will get a much better 4gl with timely upgrades and new developments. > And Informix doesn't have to support it anymore. Which probably saves > them a lot of money. > Uhm you can't. You'll run in to some problems.I think there are some ways around this though. > Looking at the results from that community then I wouldn't be suprised > when they will make it work on many databases :). > And probably make it work in GUI environments to. > On the other hand if someone in the community set his/hers mind to it > the community probably could build the suite (CISAm, SE, ESQL/C and 4gl) > in a year or 2. > I think that there are other 3rd party 4gls out there.I'd consider something in Java, or TK/TCL. Or if you want to stay and be standard accross IBM , SUN , HP, do it in CDE (Common Desktop Environment.) [It could still be a 4GL but the lower level code would have to map to the CDE environment.] > As to support. Lets be short on this I do not believe that there is > one vendor who provide better support then the Linux community. Since > that is free and better, no mandatory charge for support unless > something substantial is delivered for the money payed. > (Probably most vendors don't have a track record for providing > something good here !with some exception to the rule off course) > No,This is where the paradigm changes. The OS is one thing, an application is another. Clients want support. They will need it. This issue can be addressed and is being addressed. I suggest you take a look at the IIUG's e-mail list or contact Tim or myself on this. > My conclusion. > Porting of Cisam, SE, ESQL/xx 4gl (rds & compiled) is feasible and > not labor intensive. > Business case argument is moot since existing ports already work. > Online (OWS and the works) not feasible for informix to do on Linux. > Uhm no.The business case is important. Trust me on this. I've had to hash it out several times and I really don't want to do it again. As far as pricing, it is going to be competitive, however, you need to have a business case to show if you are correctly pricing the product. This is not the week to beat on Informix, since they are all at a kick off meeting. Now is the time to have some patience. At least for the week. Although Rene, you are not too far off the mark. You just need to think bigger! :-) Linux is real and capable of handling the small to medium size market. (OWS , ODS, 4GL and ESQL/C are on the list.) (RDS??? Maybe don't know) So please fill out the survey. And have your freinds fill one out too! (Only one and a valid e-mail address for auditing purposes.) -Mikey