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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: antonn who wrote (10144)	3/16/1999 8:15:00 PM
From: Michael Olin	Respond to of 19079

I think that when Microsoft publishes the audited TPC-D results, Larry should write a $1 million check to HP (who it appears did all of the work). How come MS couldn't do this last month before Oracle "withdrew" the challenge? -Michael

To: antonn who wrote (10144)	3/16/1999 8:27:00 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19079

What I think, Anton, is that you should go back & read the release more closely. If you are able to do this you will realize that MSFT did NOT meet the challenge -- notwithstanding the lesser issue that the challenge period has expired. Focus on the following language in the release: "unveil an innovative solution to the same business problem posed by Oracle Corp. in its million-dollar ''Challenge," "Microsoft and HP worked together on an alternative approach to the Challenge." [Emphasis added.] Let me ask you something, Anton, when it comes to presenting the TRUE results of specified performance tests, what credibility does MSFT have today? Did you follow any portion of the gov't antitrust trial? Innovative solution? Hmmm. I'm not in this business to evaluate that actual performance tests run by MSFT. But I am willing to bet it nothing but BS. I recall the challenge soliciting a demonstration that would come within 100 times of Oracle's best published performance for query number 5 of the current TPC-D specification. MSFT makes no claim to its competitive performance on this benchmark, but merely focuses on price. I'm sure the adage "you get what you pay for" applies here.

To: antonn who wrote (10144)	3/16/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: Adam Nash	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19079

What do people think of this? Microsoft meets Oracle's 1 million dollar challenge: biz.yahoo.com Ridiculous! Check out this quote: "To demonstrate the value of the platform, Microsoft and HP worked together on an alternative approach to the Challenge. Using SQL Server 7.0 Enterprise Edition, SQL Server OLAP Services and HP's Net Server LXr 8000 enterprise server systems to build a 1 TB TPC-D database, Microsoft solved the same business problem, obtaining remarkable results at a fraction of the cost of the Oracle solution -- a $600,000 system vs. a $10 million system." Hilarious! This is marketing speak for: "We couldn't do it, but we did put together a really big system that does important things - and it is much cheaper!" You see, the Oracle challenge had one thing in it that MS hates: real benchmarks. For MS, it's all about "solving the business issue," which for an engineer means "smoke and mirrors." MS is about redefining what is satisfactory, and then delivering it. And they will...