21 Apr
2002
21 Apr
'02
4:55 p.m.
Most of the software in use in the UNIX world is
free. Of course
there ARE commercial packages, but...with very few exceptions, for
every commercial package there's at least one free one that does the
job as well or better. ...
Hmmm,
OK, Apache is free and "free"; but the main uses for Unix in large
organisations are products like Oracle and SAP.
Oracle may (nowadays) be effectively free for single user purposes, but it
very definitely is not for large installations. I don't think I've heard of
one large organisation using a database other than Oracle, MS SQL server, or
the IBM product.
SAP makes Oracle look inexpensive.
The _training_ costs alone for these products typically approach five
figures.
(and that is just the DBA/application programmer ... sites needing the
advanced training have even greater expenditure)
Andy