Re: Comparing databases

On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 03:23:04PM +0200, Jussi Mikkola wrote:
> Although I am not sure, if I would say anything about support. I think
> it is an issue that people have talked for ages about open source and
> support. If we keep talking about it, does it mean that it is now
> solved, or does it mean, that there is an issue? Maybe, if we don't talk
> about it, people think it is not important? Or they forget, that there
> was an issue about support.
>
> I think it is a bit like when you are buying a car. For normal people,
> that is a big investment, and people study carefully the features of the
> car. Usually the salesman is not talking much of repair shops, because
> that would make the buyer think that there are often problems with this
> car. However, the buyer knows that if something goes broken, he can take

The problem with this analogy is that people buying databases for
enterprise use are not like people buying cars. They're more like
fleet managers, who _do_ want to know what the long-term maintenance
costs will be.

Most support agreements are actually more like insurance policies
anyway: you have to have them, but they often don't really help you
when things go all wrong. So noting that there are current suppliers
is, I think, the way to go.

A
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