[BUGS] [chat] OraSUN MicroDatabases

[Jan Mikkelsen]

Hi,

Andrew Sinclair wrote:
> 2009/4/21 Dean Hamstead <dean at fragfest.com.au>:
>> Andrew Sinclair wrote:
>>> Oracle (-1.3%) will buy Sun Microsystems (+36.8%) for US7.4B, $9.50 per
>>> share. SUn rejected IBM (-0.8%) offer of 7B earlier.
>>>
>> I think you may have forgotten that IBM makes servers and also has a
>> database (for better or worse) in the form of DB2.

This is an important point.  When selling into the "enterprise" world, 
the choice is often IBM servers running AIX and DB2, or Sun servers 
running Solaris and Oracle.  Sometimes the databases get mixed up 
(Solaris/DB2 or AIX/Oracle) but given the way Oracle and IBM sales works 
it is often either one way or the other.

Sun going away (or going to IBM) would be bad for Oracle because 
suddenly the only Big Iron hardware vendor left standing for running 
their high end software would also be their primary database software 
competitor.

> I have not forgotten; though, I have never used their stash. Can't say
> that I can know an Oracle database when I see one either.
> 
>> My feelings are that MySQL [respectfully capitalised] would be on the chopping block either way.

Remember that Oracle already own InnoDB and Sleepycat Software (Berkeley 
DB).  A long time ago they bought DEC/RDB and turned it into Oracle RDB, 
which is still supported as a separate product.  I suspect Oracle see 
this as a way of expanding low-end database revenue without damaging the 
brand of the flagship database products.  I would be surprised to see a 
significant change.

>> However there are still suitable alternatives in PostgreSQL [ditto] and firebird.
>>
> I'll be honest with you; that makes me very happy.
> 
> Can't say the same will be true for those who were able to invest in
> MySQL, my employer included.
> 
> No matter; the original developers of our system have professionally
> passed on. I was due to pitch Ingress anyway.

Ingres!  Wow, I first used that in the late '80s or early '90s.  That 
was open sourced a few years ago (I got a source kit while it was 
around), but I thought it disappeared into a private equity thing. 
What's happening with that?

Regards,

Jan Mikkelsen