RE: IDS v7 -> v9 upgrades

Neil, I seem to remember the same ideological discussions when we first tried to convert SE users to Online, Online users to IDS 7. There are still SE users out there who are very happy. The database does the job they inteneded to use it for. There are still Online version 5 customers who are very happy. And I can see that in 5 years time there will still be version 7 customers who will be very happy. As you say there are lots of nice baubles in the new releases but who really needs them for existing applications? And who will pay the premium to upgrade? The potential problems come when IBM decide to stop porting the engine that you are using to the latest hardware or OS version. But if you are still using the same application why would you need new hardware and or OS? And as for customers not using the new facilities, I know of many customers who were "forced" onto IDS 7 and still do not use features beyond Online version 5. They just have a more difficult engine to manage. My recommendation to all of my customers has always been to resist the pressure to upgrade unless they have a need for the new features. But that isn't good business sense for me as once the application and engine are stable and working well they don't need consultancy services. It's what led many customers to UNIX in the first place. They were being "forced" into bigger and better mainframes which they didn't need, by a monolithic company who kept brining out more and more facilities that they didn't want. Now who can guess what company that was? Malcolm -----Original Message----- From: owner-informix-list@iiug.org [mailto:owner-informix-list@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Neil Truby Sent: 18 February 2004 22:16 To: informix-list@iiug.org Subject: Re: IDS v7 -> v9 upgrades "Obnoxio The Clown" <obnoxio@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:c10l5u$1bm0ui$1@ID-64669.news.uni-berlin.de... > Neil Truby wrote: > > > such as? > > datablades? > > Functional indexes, better diagnostics, more parameters, bigger > chunks, yadda yadda yadda Well, this goes to the heart of the matter doesn't it? I seem to be the only person in Christendom who thinks that the big chunks thingy is a nice bauble, rather than the greatest thing since Lycra. As for the datablades, functional indexes etc, this all depends if you're likely to use them. Most of our customers don't. sending to informix-list