RE: Oracle and OpenVMS (was: Rename Column in 9iR2)

Mladen - Thanks for replying. And I thought formerly communist countries would have had the socialist idea that nobody ever lost their job. How naive of me I'm hoping that you are in a better job situation today.

        Actually, I've always wondered if organizations in foreign companies sometimes get shafted into unwittingly buying obsolete US products. I formerly worked at Control Data. When it was on the verge of ceasing its proprietary hardware business, they were still selling their largest mainframes to existing customers that were trying to forestall the eventual conversion, but no new US customers were coming forward. But the company newsletters were trumpeting new foreign customers like the government of Thailand, and I wondered how they would feel when the inevitable closing came.

        Just to keep this on Oracle, I thing that when we look at new platforms, we need to look into the future. For example, many RISC manufacturers have conceded that they can't compete against Intel's deep pockets and are switching to the Itanium for the next generation. This may presage their switch to Linux, since if they are all on the same hardware, it doesn't make sense for them to maintain their own Unix version. Also, with a lot of people in the industry counting on the success of the Itanium, all bets are off if it flops. But as you point out, making hardware recommendations doesn't come without a cost. Personally I'm going to remember that moral for awhile, probably being less irritated when my suggestions are ignored.
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 2:48 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

> -----Original Message-----
> From: DENNIS WILLIAMS [mailto:DWILLIAMS_at_lifetouch.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 1:23 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: Oracle and OpenVMS (was: Rename Column in 9iR2)
>
>
> Mladen - I'm sorry but I'm still struggling with the part of
> your note that
> says "After all, I had to resign because I advised my boss to
> buy MIPS R3300
> based DECSystems 5800 with Ultrix. In slightly less then a
> year . . ."
> Let me understand. You made a recommendation, which your boss
> accepted. Your
> company received almost a year of usage, I assume it was
> good, reliable
> service.

Yes it was, but they have expected more then a year.They accused me of spending money on the computer that was desupported in less then a year. I was working in a communist country then ( ex Yuogoslavia) and that's how it was.

> First of all, I think you are better off not working for that
> company.

So do I, but I still don't like when somebody sells me equipment that gets despported in a year. DEC should have provided bug fixes and an easy transition period. They haven't done that. I mean, I'm driving 3 years old Hyundai and they have newer and better models now, but I still don't have trash my car, do I? After all, I did receive 4 years of good service but they keep providing spare parts like AC, transmission, gas pump and alike (I haven't needed them yet). I would really hate if they told me that I will not be able to obtain spare parts and that I have to buy a new Sonata, because this one is getting desupported.
> Second, other that the salesman's opinion, why do
> you say that was
> the wrong system? Were there other issues, possibly involving
> his wife? I

Nope. The system was SMP, but Ultrix has never successfully done it. There were numerous bugs and DEC wasn't providing bug fixes any more. Soon IDEAS, Oracle and ArcInfo desupported it and there was no software for the box.

> can only think of all the idiots that have been promoted for
> suggesting the
> wrong system. Third, I'm kinda glad that nobody has asked my
> opinion of what
> system should be purchased (well, aside from an Altos server
> running a Z-80,
> but that worked out well, but again, NO upgrade path), and in
> the future I'm
> going to be very careful not to give anybody the idea that
> I'm offering an
> opinion unless it is clearly required by my job description.

Good principle which I've learned the hard way.

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  INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

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