There are a couple of points in the last few posts to respond to...
Lizzie's surprise that there is no "cost" to upgrade to 11i is an example of how so many people fail to understand the differences between the business practices of Oracle and other software companies (like Microsoft). When you license an Oracle software product, you pay a ONE-TIME license fee. If you choose (and anyone who doesn't is a fool) to purchase a support agreement, which will probably run about 20% of the license cost, annually, not only are you purchasing UNLIMITED technical support, but you are also entitled to ALL UPGRADES to the product "for free". Oracle has NEVER charged customers with support agreements for version upgrades. In fact, if they discontinue a product and replace it with a new one (replacing Oracle Web Server with 9iAS, for example), your support agreement generally gets you the new software product for free. I have one client that was running web-deployed Oracle Reports using the Oracle Developer Server and Oracle Web Server. Since Developer Server was discontinued and the functionality moved to 9iAS, they made one phone call and converted the Developer Server/Web Server licenses to 9iAS Enterprise Edition. For free!
Now just to prove myself wrong, Oracle has recently introduced fixed-term licensing as an alternative to the perpetual license we're all accustomed to. Now you can purchase, for example, a 4-year license for a product. I'm not sure how that works, or why you would want to do it, but it's out there.
I'm glad that Hardly's golf buddy is enthusiastic about the app server business at Oracle, but from the user side, I'm getting the feeling that the latest release, 9iAS R2 is a huge mistake. I have yet to hear anyone who was able to easily install the product and people hate the architecture. With this new release (technobabble follows...) you are required to install Oracle's LDAP server...and you need to store the server's repository in an Oracle9i database...and that database instance needs to be separate from your other database instances...and there are restrictions on where all of the products can be installed since they don't all play nicely on the same box...and if you already have LDAP from another vendor, it doesn't matter, you can't use it with 9iAS...and so on, and so on.
I have not spoken to anybody who is happy about 9iAS R2. All of the happy folks must work for Oracle...
-Michael |
