Some of y'all may have noted that recently Oracle has been touting that their "high-speed cache, coupled with our database, will run your web site three times faster than IBM or MS or we will give you $1,000,000 in cash". It sounds pretty good as marketing PR..... but check the fine print at: http://www.oracle.com/guarantee/ under "Important details, limitations and conditions". There are a number of "interesting" restrictions and clauses that tilt the playing field in Oracle's direction here..... two that really catch my eye: > 5. YOU WILL NEED TO PURCHASE THE PRODUCTS AND > SERVICES RECOMMENDED BY ORACLE, AND > UNDERTAKE YOUR BEST EFFORTS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR > WEB SITE IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR > RECOMMENDATIONS. .... note the "and services" in above....... and: > 7. If, after you convert your web site to Oracle as required, it > does not run at least three times as fast, we will have up to 90 > days during which we may tune the performance of your site. Especially note that YOU the prospective sucker.... oops...: "customer".... are obligated to pay Oracle for anything and everything *they* feel like doing to tune your web site for 90 days.... Let's see (just guessing here): Five full-time Oracle systems engineers for 90 days: $1600 x 5 x 90 = $720,000... Plus of course you've got to buy Oracle 8i and the Oracle 9i App server..... hmmm..... yup: For a system of any size, I can see where if Oracle loses, they might indeed pay you a million bucks.... while you the "customer" end up owing Oracle about $1.5 million for software and services.... SIDEBAR: Another group at our activity once spent many months struggling to get a major Oracle app up... Finally gave up and hired Oracle for something like $350K (I don't recall how long that covered the Oracle people).... A few years later the whole thing was turned off, because nobody could afford to continue to maintain it.... And then of course there is the usual Oracle caveat; that all dealings with them in connection with this offer must be kept confidential. I don't lose any sleep over it, but I wonder from time to time: How does Oracle continue to get away with this stuff ??.... Ken Sletten