Re: Informix: First impressions

Nils Myklebust wrote: > > aak2@Ra.MsState.Edu (Atif Ahmad Khan) wrote: > > :After trying the Oracle trial versions on NT and Solaris x86 > :I am completely disgusted with the product and the company > :(they cant even write install scripts without making blunders) > :and looking for a better solution. > > :Someone over the usenet recommended Informix. I looked at their > :home page and was a little disappointed. No On-line Store (like > :Oracle has) for me to purchase products or literature for beginners. > :Worse, no trial version of any products (like Oracle has) ! I mean > :who wants to spend thousands of dollars on a product and then say > :ooops ? > > There will shortly be a downloadable version of OnLine Workgroup > Server for Windows NT. > Otherwise you can contact the nearest Informix office to get a trial > version of any of their products. > > :Also looking at the web pages I couldn't tell if this product was > :available for Solaris_x86. It probably is there but wasn't anywhere > :obvious and I didn't want to wade through tonnes of "my database is > :better than your database" stuff. > > Very understandable (although it *is* better). The OnLine engine (and > perhaps SE as well) is available for Solaris x86 but I don't know > which version. You would have to actually talk to Informix. That's > bad, but that's the way it is right now. > > You do also want to look into Illustra and Universal Server. That's a > real revolution going on in the database industry now, and something > you can't get anywhere but from Informix. It's likely to take the > others years to get to the level these products represents. > > Nils.Myklebust@ccmail.telemax.no > NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway > My opinions are those of my company "*IS*" better is a matter of requirement. If you have a highly distributed environment with requirements for trigger based replication, Informix *is not* better, as there is no such thing. If you have multi processor systems that are used together (not partitioned) it *is* better. We in our field should try to stop painting with too broad a brush. We all have our pet technologies, but we should try to paint a picture of technology based on the required focus, not our petting zoo.