Richard Gambrell writes:

> After 24 months and way, way too much $$$ already spent, it looks like
> we're more or less halting our migration to an Oracle based commercial
> "integrated" application package (whose vendor will remain nameless) and
> we'll be enhancing and webifying our (really it is more Jeff's) superior
> in-house application on MPE using TurboImage.

My first thought here is "Congratulations!" to whomever was responsible
for cutting their losses; I'm certain it was not an easy decision to make.

My other thought here is that it was only an Oracle-*based* package.
To condemn Oracle would be like condemning Image just because some awful
package uses it.

Having seen the myriad of configuration details with Informix, I'm aware
that the above analogy isn't entirely "fair."  On a loosely-related note,
the SETI@home people are having trouble configuring Informix; see the
September 17th entry at

   < http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/tech_news.html >

for details.  The biggest conclusion I have from this is that Image users
are quite spoiled.  Those with no experience with major RDBMS's (as I was
prior to Informix) may have difficulty (as I had) imagining what the big
deal could be; trust me when I say you don't want to know. ;)


Separately, Vince Martyn (of Oracle UK) writes:

> I tend to lurk rather than post to the list, I think people see just
> my Email address and not the 18 year HP3000 fan that has typed the
> message.  When I do post, I usually get agressive replies
[snip]

I am quite shocked that Mr. Martyn "usually gets aggressive replies."
I have seen only help from him, and NEVER an "Oracle Rulez" attitude.
His caring about the 3000 is evident from his participation in hp3000-L.
Given the size of Oracle Corp., I am a bit surprised that he is the ONLY
active rep from Oracle on the list.

If I were an Oracle-on-the-3000 user, I would be darned glad (as Richard
Gambrell is/was) that Vince is here to help.

--Glenn