Re: backhanded compliment from Larry Ellison

On Wed, 20 Nov 2002 09:16:29 -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
>Robert,
>
>>He was then quoted as saying "They are a bigger threat to
>>[Microsoft]
>>SQL Server than Oracle."
>
>I've always felt the same. In fact, I tried to persuade the
>president of Great Bridge to target SQL Server before taking on
>Oracle, without success.

I've got to disagree with LarryE on this one, although I agree with
many of Josh's points in that last email.

As I've written lately and Josh pointed out here:

> ... over the last 5 years,
>Oracle's license revenue has shrunk while their service revenue has
>climbed steadily.

..while we cannot say the same about Microsoft's license revenues.

Oracle and PostgreSQL run on the same platforms, but PostgreSQL does
not yet run natively on Windows. We'll get there, but until we do
PostgreSQL cannot nearly be the competitive consideration in MS shops
that it is in Oracle shops.

I know that Oracle and PostgreSQL use more similar procedural
languages than PostgreSQL and MS SQL Server do, making conversion (at
least theoretically) slightly easier from Oracle than from MS.

Speaking as a PostgreSQL newbie and a Linux newbie, but as the
president of a small and therefore supposedly nimble company: getting
out of Windows 2000 and MS SQL Server and into Linux and PostgreSQL
is not an easy task, and that's more the OS than the DBMS.

Maybe Larry defines the word "threat" as something in the future, a
bad thing that hasn't happened yet. As in the big kid who beat you up
and took your lunch money earlier today is no longer a threat, he's a
painful reality.

Since we'll have a big effect on MS eventually, and PostgreSQL has
been having a big effect on Oracle for some time now, well, in that
sense, I guess Larry is right, it may be more of a "threat" to MS.

PostgreSQL is already *more* than a threat to Oracle, it's a promise.

Anyway, Josh is right: alliances are as important as marketing and
support and having a top-notch product to the success of PostgreSQL
going forward.

I have no doubt we'll see more and more firms building their software
on PostgreSQL over time.

- Shane McChesney