Topic awaiting preservation: Why not Oracle? (Page 1 of 1)

As far as I was able to understand Oracle licensing, the software is free. They charge when you need support and then they charge big time. So my question is: why Oracle, that's apparently free to use, is not as widely used as mySQL by the free community people? Am I wrong about how I understood Oracle licensing? Oracle seems to be much more powerful than mySQL.

I'm not sure either, having never used it, but my Dad does datebase work for the Corps of Engineers (among other things) and said that each copy of Oracle 8i was about $50-80,000 per computer/liscense. I might be mistaken, because it was kind-of off hand, but it was either that or somewhere around 25,000. This was to buy the software, warranty, tech support and just grab the liscence etc. I think that their philosphy is that they can charge more for a higher quality product, and they don't need to sell as many copies at a high price to make a good amount of money.

[This message has been edited by counterfeitbacon (edited 06-01-2003).]

I made a introductory course on database that used Oracle, and an Oracle DBA guy told me that the software is free and they charge (heavily) for the support. If you go to the Oracle website, you can download and install almost any software they have, with no restrictions. I have downloaded the three-CD Oracle 9i database software, installed in my machine, for learning purposes, it runs fine, it "talks" beautifully to ColdFusion, etc... so I want to understand what's the catch, why nobody talks about Oracle. There has to be some catch.

a) It costs a shitload of money. I believe the basic license also costs you, if it's for comercial use (ie. if a isp wanted to use it). Plus, you can basically get mysql support for free from any good techi (after all, they can read it on the net, can't they). A competent oracle technican (who'd have to have taken expensive oracle trainings, for the knowledge is not available otherwise) would cost you, even without the real oracle support, quite a number of bucks a year.

b) Oracle is a whole different leage... It probably wouldn't even run decent on most of the hardware webhosts are using for cheap hosting. It needs a big iron to back it, but then it's very powerful.

c) I'd imagine the software to be free only for personal use... and again, the manuals will cost you.

I read Oracle's website more carefully and indeed only the Personal edition is totally free. To use the database in a production environment, it will cost a lot of money, more than any regular one can afford. So, forget my initial question. Thread closed

It may be closed but I can second what's already been said. Oracle costs lots of money but if you are serious about DB, then it is the only way to go. It does everything you need it to do and it does it pretty darn well. So if you need to stored billions of peices of information and you need it to work reliably then you really would go nowhere else for a solution. It's really quite a good company and product considering how it tries to be all things to all high-end customers.

. . : slicePuzzle

Considering the price, it has to be the best.
I work for the Brazilian IRS. Oracle is the database we use.

viol: Interesting (esp. if you had to learn Oracel quickly ) - fancy dropping a few bits and bobs into the FAQ?

[edit: Started a quick FAQ:

:FAQ:

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