Database software for UNIX systems

[mo at wgivax.UUCP]

Look into ORACLE and SIR.  Both have problems (ORACLE did not support
4.2 as of July, 1985 and SIR did not support multiple users except
if everyone is interfacing through screens -- no simultaneous batch
or ad hoc queries -- as of August, 1985).

Informix and Unify just won't cut it for large applications, and Ingres
(commercial or not) has a lot of bugs in their UNIX version (the current
UNIX 4.2 port was not even able to complete the turorial outlined in the
manuals without severely crashing).  Ingres also requires mods to the
kernel, which some (including myself) feel is a bad way to implement
locking.

These comments stem from an in depth evaluation of these software systems
in July, 1985, including on-hands with SIR, INGRES, and INFORMIX.  ORACLE
did not have a version available for 4.2 at the time, and UNIFY was just
too limiting.

Our final decision was to keep what we had -- a Britton Lee Database Machine,
the only valid solution to large database applications (500+ Mb) in the UNIX
environment today (-: in my opinion, of course :-).  We have since bought a
second IDM.

BTW: Britton Lee just announced a new "deskside" database machine for around
     $40,000 with disk, making it competitive with software systems.

Some addresses you might find useful:

Britton Lee, Inc        SIR, Inc                ORACLE
14600 Winchester Blvd   5215 Old Orchard Rd
Los Gatos, CA 95030     Skokie, IL 60077        Menlo Park, CA
(408) 378-7000          (312) 470-9770          (415) 854-7350