mark.scranton@gmail.com wrote:
>
> THE DOUBLE-ECHO questions: I'll leave those alone. If that knowledge
> isn't already deeply engrained in this persons head, then I cannot hope
> to persuade him via a CDI thread. All I know is that we have traveled
> the world explaining exactly THIS - why we are a better choice for many
> clients than the other players. This has been my mission since joining
> Informix in 1995. I would hope that some of you would join me. And
> instead of criticizing IBM for what they do so wrong....if you have
> ground-breaking ideas and the skills to do what you think IBM should be
> doing - apply for a job here! We can always use more Informix folks!
>

Not much of an answer, which is what I expected. To this day, I have
yet to see anyone actually answer my questions. I have spent several
years working with and for people who do nothing but generate sales
from marketing campaigns and creatives. They all say the exact same
thing: You must have an offer in your creative ( mailing, magazine ad,
commercial ) that is presented to your customer. What are you offering
the customer with Informix? What makes it **THE** choice? What is
the offer? ( DB2 offer is pretty lame FWIW )

I don't see the offer, or the compelling reason that tells a customer
Informix is the only one to buy. It doesn't matter what I know or don't
know about Informix, there are hardly any jobs for the product which is
usually a pretty darn good indicator of customers and their intentions.

Using the product for applications may be great, but you can use this argument
for any of the major databases, so again, nothing unique enough about the product.
It has no sizzle to go with the steak. There also has to be an offer directed at
different segments of the market, one for the development community, one for corporate
management, and so on. You may have traveled the world explaining Informix to a
few people, but if I go into a room and ask people who Oracle or IBM or Microsoft
are, I won't have a blank look for an answer, like I will for Informix. ( Hire
Peter Coyote the voice behind Oracle and have him tell everyone the benefits of
Informix. )

As far as commenting here, or being critical of IBM, it is important to
have differences of opinions, and allow people to vent their perspectives
in a public form.

It might be useful for you and other zealots to actually listen to what
people say rather than brushing them off and being dismissive. Maybe all
your hard work is in vain because you are not focusing on the right things.
Complaints usually tell you what you need to focus on. When IBM creates a
climate of endurance for Informix that isn't obviously double-talk then
you will have succeeded. Informix is a peer product with DB2, and until
you can fix this problem you will continue to get criticism and anger
from people who use the product and expect IBM to give it peer support
with DB2 in the market. IBM has been dismissive about Informix in the
broader sense, and people see right through it. It will take more than
Infobahns and user groups to make it happen. It have to come from the
market outside your existing customer base. Make an offer!


> I would hope that the IIUG board would respond to threads like this
> one. There are many people on the board that have a great deal of
> information on many of the topics I have raised. If I am the lone
> ranger on this, then I don't carry enough weight (although I am
> carrying more from international travel!) to persuade the masses.
>
> Thanks for listening -
> Mark Scranton
> IBM Worldwide Informix Technical Strategist
> mark.scranton@us.ibm.com
>

Christine Normile said:
>
> High on our list of deliverables
> this
> year is collateral to back up the benefits of Informix such as analyst
> papers, benchmarks and more visible marketing of the products.

Who are you and what have you done with the IBMer?

--
Bye now,
Obnoxio

"C'est pas parce qu'on n'a rien à dire qu'il faut fermer sa gueule"
- Coluche

did i mention i like nulls? heck, i even go so far as to say that all
columns in a table except the primary key could/should be nullable. this
has certain advantages, for example, if you need to insert a child record
and you don't have a parent row for it, just do an insert into the parent
table with the primary key value (everything else null), and voila,
relational integrity is preserved. but this is, admittedly, a bit
controversial among modellers.

--r937, dbforums.com

trev wrote:

> "What if the development had no experience in Informix?"

Then they find someone that teaches a class for Informix DBAs and
developers on migrating to the other product. I teach it and so do
others I know.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

We on the Informix team refer to Christine as "She the
Converted"....and Obnoxio, I have to say I DID appreciate the BuckleUp
graphic for this thread. That made me laugh - it was in hex, but it was
a laugh regardless...

Thanks -
Mark Scranton
IBM Informix WorldWide Team
mark.scranton@us.ibm.com

mark.scranton@gmail.com said:
>
> We on the Informix team refer to Christine as "She the
> Converted"

Did she have an in-place upgrade?

--
Bye now,
Obnoxio

"C'est pas parce qu'on n'a rien à dire qu'il faut fermer sa gueule"
- Coluche

did i mention i like nulls? heck, i even go so far as to say that all
columns in a table except the primary key could/should be nullable. this
has certain advantages, for example, if you need to insert a child record
and you don't have a parent row for it, just do an insert into the parent
table with the primary key value (everything else null), and voila,
relational integrity is preserved. but this is, admittedly, a bit
controversial among modellers.

--r937, dbforums.com

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> Are you serious?! Anyone who compares MySQL to DB2/Oracle/Informix
> either doesn't know what they are talking about, thinks a PHP script is
> a 'real application', or has simply licked too many mushrooms. The
> reasons to use DB2/Oracle/Informix over something like MySQL would be
> *WAY* too long to type (data integrity being the first one).

That's not really a fair assesment.

MySQL is becoming a very mature product. I'm actually considering using
version 5's clustering on a new project.

>>Why would management pay for Informix instead of something else?
>
>
> Because you already have it; management thinks in terms of risk.
> Stinking with what you've got is low risk.

Management will typically pay for what they are told they need. As a
professional it is your job to choose the right solution for the job at
hand.

I started with Informix many years ago because of RDS. The query by
example was the best tool for our job. The database engine chosen was
SE. It has been rock solid for many years.

The current system was booted up in 2001 and the computer running it has
been rebooted twice because of power outages. That says a lot about the
stability of SE.

My biggest problem with Informix is IBM. I've been trying for over a
week to do something as simple as buying an updated version. I've been
on the phone every day with people from IBM and being told "Someone who
can help you will call you right back".

I've worked with many databases over the last 20 years. So far the most
reliable solid databases have been Informix SE and Sybase SQL Anywhere
(Sybase ASE totally sucks). I've had issues with MySQL handling large
loads but by its open source nature there is considerable more support
than the others.

I've used DB2 and Oracle and don't put them in the same classification
Informix. Both require more administrative costs and I've experienced
data loss with both. I actually replaced a very expensive Sun server
running Oracle that had crashed with a low end PC running SQL Anywhere
and had better performance.

Informix is still my favorite database. I just whish IBM had a "Buy it
now" button on their website.

Contact

Danilo Novelli
Wordwide Informix Sales
danilo@us.ibm.com

and tell him David Williams sent you!

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:21:59 -0800, BigVinnie
<BigVinnieRocks@gwhizmail.com> wrote:

>
>I've used DB2 and Oracle and don't put them in the same classification
>Informix. Both require more administrative costs and I've experienced
>data loss with both. I actually replaced a very expensive Sun server
>running Oracle that had crashed with a low end PC running SQL Anywhere
>and had better performance.
>
>Informix is still my favorite database. I just whish IBM had a "Buy it
>now" button on their website.

I heard that it's supported in the next version of Websphere, but
you'll have to wait for the Informix-compatible port . . .8-)

JWC

BigVinnie wrote:


>
> MySQL is becoming a very mature product. I'm actually considering using
> version 5's clustering on a new project.
>

Hmm - on reflection, I'm sorry Sir, but this is a private beach.
(Clustering with MySQL is like wearing a thong on Brighton Beach. Just
one of those things sane people don't do)

>From the IDS home page:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/

Select Which Edition is right for you?

And you will get a page that explains the different editions. Choose
the one you want and clike the Buy Online link!

Or did you mean another Informix?

Christine