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List:       linux-informix
Subject:    Why I would like to see Informix ported (Was Re: Status Check)
From:       Allanah Myles <dossy () panoptic ! com>
Date:       1998-06-05 17:30:57
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On 1998.06.05, Tim_Schaefer@fpl.com <Tim_Schaefer@fpl.com> wrote:
>     As for the the rest of you lurkers out there, don't expect the
>     other fellow to get the job done.  And that includes our vendor
>     and distributor friends on this list, who might ask what they
>     can do NOW to help out, and push this thing into reality.

>From a software vendor's point of view, who is writing/maintaining
products that utilize Informix as the product's RDBMS...

The reasons why I would like to see an Informix port (or, any
enterprise-level RDBMS port, for that matter) are:

1) Lowered cost:  Currently, in addition to the cost of my product
alone, I need to convince a customer to spend ~$60K on hardware
plus another ~$65K for a 50-user Informix OL-DS license.  That's
nearly an extra $120K-130K overhead that I could bring to my
customers as either savings (or increased income for myself).
Even if the Informix license still costs roughly $65K, I still
can save my customer ~$50K in hardware costs building a cluster
of servers doing load-sharing.

2) Existing support:  I already *know* the Informix SQL set,
understand its ESQL/C, have a product written that USES Informix's
ESQL/C... for me to use Informix under Linux, I would save the
lead-time of doing development under Linux since the product
already works with Informix's ESQL/C - I would be able to go
straight to testing/QA and push my product out.

3) Customer loyalty:  Informix already has a crowd of loyal
customers, so selling my product to them and saying "I utilize
Informix as my RDBMS" is not only a selling point for me towards
those customers, but also tells them that my product will be
able to handle certain needs/meet certain requirements since
they already know Informix's capabilities.  This saves me having'
to try and sell them an off-brand RDBMS that they may not already
know about.

4) Developer support:  Informix has been very good at supporting
me in my development efforts, letting me ask tough questions
about problems I've had dealing with their OL-DS product and
strange errors from their ESQL/C pre-compiler...  granted, the
service costs $9K/year, but at least it's there.

5) Good documentation:  YES!  I think Informix has one of the
best sets of books/documentation to come with an RDBMS.  That,
to me, is quite important.  Acutally, almost everything I know
about Informix has either been from me reading a book cover-to-
cover, or me breaking down and asking someone.  I don't know
how many OTHER RDBMS's I could say this about.

...these are the items of interest off the top of my head.  I'm
sure there are more, but I think these are the most important
to *me* as a vendor of a product that utilizes Informix as its
RDBMS.

-Dossy

-- 
URL: http://www.panoptic.com/~dossy -< BORK BORK! >- E-MAIL: dossy@panoptic.com
    Now I'm who I want to be, where I want to be, doing what I've always said I
    would and yet I feel I haven't won at all...      (Aug 9, 95: Goodbye, JG.)
"You should change your .sig; not that the world revolves around me." -s. sadie

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