RE: Oracle Hungry for Money

Well stated. However, unlike you I cannot read minds, and cannot say whether the default install model has such a sinister purpose. Some versions of Oracle's installer have been so buggy that I can only conclude their purpose was to convince you to use another database. If what you state as the only defensible reason is true, wouldn't Oracle be marshalling a vast army of auditors to collect from the unwitting companies.

The person did not complain that he was fooled into installing the product, but tricked into admitting he had installed it.

Ian MacGregor
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
ian_at_SLAC.STanford.edu

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 1:34 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

"For some reason there has been a great confusion..."

I believe that's exactly the point. Oracle installed this extra-cost option by default, for no other defensible reason then to encourage its unwitting use. There's a reason there has been confusion. They're like a drug pusher, first one's easy but once you're hooked you PAY. And unless you know where to look its not so easy to find info on Metalink for what are the options for each DB version. I don't know what the original meaning was behind 'feeling tricked', but I guarantee you there are some on this list who've just realized they've been tricked into using an expensive add-on product they may not be able to back out of at this point.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 3:29 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

While I agree Oracle is avaricious and sales reps are a smarmy lot, I don't see any entrapment here. If you believe you are licensed for an option and you are not, it is perfectly legitimate for Oracle to ask for you to pay for that license and any maintenance costs. $23,800 is cheap, must be a 20 named user license. They are not asking for payment for all the years it had been illegally installed? Consider yourself very lucky and Oracle anything but greedy.

"Feeling tricked" implies that had you known that you were not licensed,
you would not have divulged it to Oracle. If so, you are lower than a smoldering heap of parrot droppings. However, as it was indeed an innocent mistake and no such characterization is necessary.

For some reason there has been a great confusion over whether the partitioning option costs extra. Even some of the most knowledgeable DBA's in the world were mistaken on this. The height of this misunderstanding was a two to three years ago. I expect there were hundreds perhaps thousands of sites who have installed partitioning without a license because they believed it to be free.

Ian MacGregor
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
ian_at_slac.stanford.edu

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