Informix vs. Oracle

#1

I'll ask the age old question, can anyone direct me to some Informix
vs. Oracle comparision information? I am looking for something as
concise as possible but with good content. Thanks in advance.

#2

ky wrote:

Quote:

I'll ask the age old question, can anyone direct me to some Informix
vs. Oracle comparision information? I am looking for something as
concise as possible but with good content. Thanks in advance.

Such comparisons are inevitably biased because the people running it will
not know enough about each product to let them shine. I know all the ones
I've seen from Oracle shops have holes the size of lorries in their
understanding of Informix, and vice-versa.

Besides, both products have generally got ways of addressing most problems.
I personally believe that IDS is more elegant architecturally and in
solving OR issues than any other database, and it has better APIs, but
Oracle is more widely supported. You probably need to do things like
evaluate local support (I still find Informix support unbeatable, despite
IBM's best efforts

), costs, support for your specific requirements, etc.

I think apart from indexing APIs (where IDS has the edge) and star schema
support (where I think Oracle has an edge -- in the brochures, anyway!)
most problems can be solved by both.

I really wouldn't trust a comparison unless I'd done it myself, and I
certainly wouldn't expect you to trust one that I'd done.

#3

"Obnoxio The Clown" <obnoxio (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

ky wrote:

Besides, both products have generally got ways of addressing most
problems.
I personally believe that IDS is more elegant ...

And you'd recognise elegance if it bit you in the arse, wouldn't you?

#4

Neil Truby wrote:

Quote:

"Obnoxio The Clown" <obnoxio (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:bjnk61$l6ka6$1 (AT) ID-64669 (DOT) news.uni-berlin.de...
ky wrote:

Besides, both products have generally got ways of addressing most
problems.
I personally believe that IDS is more elegant ...

And you'd recognise elegance if it bit you in the arse, wouldn't you?

Of course. I can recognise a Picasso without being able to paint.

#5

Quote:

Of course. I can recognise a Picasso without being able to paint.

Maybe. But how would you know it was the right way up ?

#6

Daniel Morgan wrote:

Quote:

ky wrote:

I'll ask the age old question, can anyone direct me to some Informix
vs. Oracle comparision information? I am looking for something as
concise as possible but with good content. Thanks in advance.

I'm going to partly agree with Obnoxio in that any comparison you find
will be biased based on the company that paid for it or the experience
of the authors: Usually both.

The other thing that is critical is that comparisons are only valid for
the specific functionality being evaluated. So, for example, are you
buying the RDBMS for an OLTP system? Or a data warehouse? A finance
system? Which one? How many users? How large? What transaction volume?
What security requirements? Web front end? What third-party tools? Do
you need remote management capabilities? Clustering?

Are you interested in mapping and spatial relationships? document
management? XML? Java? C? Fortran? What hardware? What operating system?
What experience do you and your team have? The architecture differencees
between Informix and Oracle are huge and not something that can easily
be glossed over unless you like to make large expensive messes?

Even something as simple as the need for a specific security capability
can push one in a specific direction even if the product is slower or
more expensive or whatever.

Every product can not be the best at everything. You've not given anyone
a clue as to what your requirements really are making it hard even to
point you to a biased whitepaper.

Oh, go on -- I want to know about all of those...

)

#7

Mark Townsend wrote:

Quote:

Of course. I can recognise a Picasso without being able to paint.

Maybe. But how would you know it was the right way up ?

There's a difference?

#8

PS. Off the subject ... Did you know that the Star index, that runs on the star scheme structure, has been patented by Redbrick, and cannot be used by anyone else. Oracle tried to copy Redbrick on this, and when it comes to star schemas, is still faster than the other DBMS's, but like you say, they all have pros and cons - I am also an Informix man.

Very good technology (Redbrick that is).

-----Original Message-----
From: Obnoxio The Clown [mailto

bnoxio (AT) hotmail (DOT) com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 6:47 PM
To: informix-list (AT) iiug (DOT) org
Subject: Re: Informix vs. Oracle

ky wrote:

Quote:

I'll ask the age old question, can anyone direct me to some Informix
vs. Oracle comparision information? I am looking for something as
concise as possible but with good content. Thanks in advance.

Such comparisons are inevitably biased because the people running it will
not know enough about each product to let them shine. I know all the ones
I've seen from Oracle shops have holes the size of lorries in their
understanding of Informix, and vice-versa.

Besides, both products have generally got ways of addressing most problems.
I personally believe that IDS is more elegant architecturally and in
solving OR issues than any other database, and it has better APIs, but
Oracle is more widely supported. You probably need to do things like
evaluate local support (I still find Informix support unbeatable, despite
IBM's best efforts

), costs, support for your specific requirements, etc.

I think apart from indexing APIs (where IDS has the edge) and star schema
support (where I think Oracle has an edge -- in the brochures, anyway!)
most problems can be solved by both.

I really wouldn't trust a comparison unless I'd done it myself, and I
certainly wouldn't expect you to trust one that I'd done.

sending to informix-list

#9

Dirk Moolman wrote:

Quote:

PS. Off the subject ... Did you know that the Star index, that runs on the star scheme structure, has been patented by Redbrick, and cannot be used by anyone else. Oracle tried to copy Redbrick on this, and when it comes to star schemas, is still faster than the other DBMS's, but like you say, they all have pros and cons - I am also an Informix man.

Very good technology (Redbrick that is).

snipped

They'd better have very good attorney's too if they think they are going

to enforce that patent. They'll have to sue every Fortune 500 company in
America. And I've no doubt evrey other large organization in every other
country too.

I think the US Patent Office needs to stop taking psychotropic drugs.
People, myself included, were building these things before Redbrick
existed. If they try enforcement ... they deserve all the respect
usually reserved for SCO and RIAA.

--
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...ad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...oa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)

#10

Dirk Moolman wrote:

Quote:

PS. Off the subject ... Did you know that the Star index, that runs on
the star scheme structure, has been patented by Redbrick, and cannot be
used by anyone else. Oracle tried to copy Redbrick on this, and when it
comes to star schemas, is still faster than the other DBMS's, but like you
say, they all have pros and cons - I am also an Informix man.

Very good technology (Redbrick that is).

Not Informix, though?

)