This is a current news story reflecting a direction the commercial world is heading. It is an HTTP based news story and I apologize for those perhaps using text based readers. If there are any projects planning to port or interface with commercial UNIX, it may be of interest to consider DB2 compatibility.... Bill http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990113S0001 -- Today is the beginning of all time. Today is the end of all time. Today is. Bill Ries-Knight Computer Services www.slip.net/~brkTitle: IBM Reconsiders Free DB2 For Linux
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IBM Reconsiders Free DB2 For Linux (01/13/99, 9:59 a.m. ET) By Shawn Willett, Computer Reseller News IBM is reconsidering offering a free DB2 for Linux product after overwhelming interest from the corporate market, according to representatives from the company. "We are looking at this and trying to make sense of what the market will demand or bear for a price and how do we support it," said Jeff Jones, program manager for DB2 at IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y. Originally, IBM had planned to offer DB2 for Linux as freeware with free support via moderated news groups and chatboards. That is how Linux and its companion, the Apache Web server, are supported. DB2 for Linux, which is in beta now, has most of the features of other versions of DB2. However, it does not scale up to do clustering or other high-end features. Jones said IBM had anticipated ISPs and academic sites would be most interested in DB2 for Linux: the same market that uses the freeware version of Linux. However, that has not been the case. "The customers extend way beyond that. We had a large bank ask us for a copy," said Jones. "If commercial customers are coming on board, then lots of paradigms would change," he said, adding the free downloads far exceeded any other product. A full-featured free Linux database would pose obvious conflicts with paid DB2 running on other Unix or Windows NT platforms, he added. Both Oracle and Informix have Linux versions of their databases. They charge the workgroup price for their product. But both offer free downloads of developer versions, and Informix offers free e-mail support. Jones said IBM will decide "at the last second" whether and how much to charge for DB2 for Linux and its support.
VARs
"Oracle is putting [Oracle] 8i on it, which really gives us confidence in it," he said. He said most companies want a support contract either with the vendor or the VAR.
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