Re: [HACKERS] Informix on Linux

>
> Hi David. I see that Informix now has a no-cost developers version of a
> database available for Linux (Informix-SE; sounds sort of light-weight).
> I am planning on installing it to see what it can do (if it will work
> with my RH4.2 system; it claims to work on Caldera and SuSE only).
> Anyway, what do you know about it? Would it be a good system to
> recommend for those (for one reason or another) moving on from Postgres?
> Just curious...
>
> - Tom
>

Pretty cool huh? I have been telling anyone who would listen that we needed
to be on Linux for over two years. Don't know if that had any effect at all,
or if Informix just woke up and smelled the coffee. I wish it had been UDO,
but SE is supposed to be very nice for what it is, so this is a good start.

Anyhow, It should be fine on RH 4.2. Redhat was not mentioned because we
had some glibc issues discovered too late in the release process.

According to claims on comp.databases.informix, everything works on a glibc
system (assuming libc5 exists) except compiling and linking ESQL/C programs.
This can even be made to work if you tell gcc that is to use only libc5.
I have not tried it myself.

As an upgrade to postgres? Depends on what you are trying to use it for.
If you need objects and types and server side functions, postgres is a
good choice (only choice at this moment).

I am not very familiar with SE myself as I work on Illustra and IUS/UDO, so
take this with a grain of salt, but I would look to SE if I needed more
performance for straight up SQL. It is also probably a quite bit more stable
than postgres. And it should handle concurrent access/update to tables a
lot better. But, see the brochure at www.informix.com to get the details.

Or even better, download it and try it out ;-)

-dg

David Gould dg(at)illustra(dot)com 510.628.3783 or 510.305.9468
Informix Software (No, really) 300 Lakeside Drive Oakland, CA 94612
- If simplicity worked, the world would be overrun with insects. -