RE: MS interview

> The longer that Oracle, MS, et al don't believe we're a threat, the
> better.  But I wonder how they *really* see us.  This article was
> too obviously a pile of marketing BS to be taken seriously by
> anyone.

Not necessarily - business guys are incredibly naive when it comes to
technology options.

I had to fight tooth and nail to use PostgreSQL/Linux on a recent project.
The business didn't care about feature comparisons, they cared about two
things:

1) Putting Oracle+Solaris logos on our technology page
2) Support

I got it through by arguing about the cost difference and the fact that
RedHat is on board (they knew who RedHat was from Business Review Weekly
*sigh*).

I forwarded that article to them, and their response to the quote of

...Open source systems "are a great way for our future customers to learn
about relational databases," says Bob Shimp, Oracle's senior director of
database marketing

was "that makes sense, after all Oracle has many more features than
PostgreSQL".

So, I guess the point I am trying to make is that image is everything - 800
people working on MS SQL Server is much more impressive to a business guy
than a couple of dozen people all over the world. Remember, these are the
people that still believe that all programmers are alike and can just be
swapped around on projects without any impact.

Hopefully, RedHat's involvement will boost the mindshare and image of
PostgreSQL and I don't have to keep doing Oracle admin :)


Mark Pritchard
Senior Technical Architect
Tangent Systems Australia
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email  mark@tangent.net.au
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fax    +61 3 9809 1322
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The central task of a natural science is to make the wonderful commonplace:
to show that complexity, correctly viewed, is only a mask for simplicity; to
find pattern hidden in apparent chaos. – Herb Simon