Oracle gripes Re: Who's in charge here: Oracle or Unix?

[Peter da Silva]

>From my experience getting Oracle up and keeping it up, I wouldn't trust
my personal phone directory to the thing... let alone a password file.
It's reliable enough as a database system, I guess, but it's terribly
easy to break. And installation and system administration is a nightmare
of frustration, with incomplete documentation, broken Makefiles, and the
like. It's easier to install the average UUNET source distribution.

Speaking of Oracle for System V/386:

	(1) It requires the Software Development System. This is not
	    documented.
	(2) It requires you manually CPIO the floppies into the machine,
	    but the CPIO command they give is broken.
	(3) The Makefile for SQL*NET is broken: you have to manually edit
	    out the references to the asy library before you can link in
	    the Interlan TCP library.
	(4) It requires a particular ethernet card: they couldn't put the
	    socket calls in a glue file that can be compiled for your own
	    TCP... they're distributed throughout the code, so...
	(5) You have to remove the Intel-supplied network drivers. This is
	    not documented.
	(6) You have to add /etc/init.d files, but they're not provided
	    in a form that you can drop them in.
	(7) I'm sure there's more, but this is all I can recall off the
	    top of my head...

I pity anyone who installs this program without being an experienced UNIX
head. And depending on it to get the system up? Give me a break! I'd rather
replace "passwd" with a csh script!
-- 
Peter da Silva.  `-_-'  peter at ferranti.com
+1 713 274 5180.  'U`  "Have you hugged your wolf today?"