I'm interested to get an understanding of who the Oracle people are out there, and your thoughts on what you know about their solutions.  

One of their "solutions" for a company I used to work for was to consolidate the multiple mailservers into one or two Oracle DB's/ tables.  It was done, bragged about ("savings"), and then it was discovered that  it would be impossible to rebuild a single user's mailbox, and that the massive table could not be restored unless they bought & implemented -- guess what -- another massive Oracle server.  Whores!

Their database kicks ass (probably the best you can get), but is expensive. They offer solutions as well, but I do not have a lot of experience with their consulting and services people. But they can't be any worse than PeopleSoft.

But they can't be any worse than PeopleSoft.

My niece said after working for two companies that PeopleSoft bleed to death that she'd rather see Hillary Clinton as president than go through another PeopleSoft installation fiasco.  After seeing how horrible their software is, I agree with her.  It couldn't be worse than PeopleSoft.z

Very interrreeessttinngg...

We just switched from SQL Server 7 to Oracle 10g. The Oracle database is, far and away, a better Enterprise product; it blows MS out of the water in terms of performance and scalablity. However, the developer tools (iSQL and iSQL+) are terrible.

After using it for the last 5 or 6 yrs. my company is going to SAP.
Hey Rob how you was??

Quoted: But they can't be any worse than PeopleSoft. My niece said after working for two companies that PeopleSoft bleed to death that she'd rather see Hillary Clinton as president than go through another PeopleSoft installation fiasco.  After seeing how horrible their software is, I agree with her.  It couldn't be worse than PeopleSoft.z

Dayum, that sounds exactly like the experience I am having with SAP right now.

Geoff

I would just like to take this opportunity to put in a word for BEA Systems WebLogic product.

Quoted: We just switched from SQL Server 7 to Oracle 10g. The Oracle database is, far and away, a better Enterprise product; it blows MS out of the water in terms of performance and scalablity. However, the developer tools (iSQL and iSQL+) are terrible.

IMO you can't compare SQL Server 7 to 10g. You can't compare 1999 technology to 2005 technology. However, if you compared SQL Server 2005 with 10g you would find similar performance and scalability but as far as features go (CLR, Web Services, XML services, Analysis Service, , Reporting services, Snapshots & mirroring) SQL Server 2005 kicks the shit out of 10g and for a hell of a lot less money. Also the Developer tools for MS can not be beat and I say that as a 7 year Java guy.

Oh and PeopleSoft is Oracle and Oracle is PeopleSoft

Quoted: Quoted: We just switched from SQL Server 7 to Oracle 10g. The Oracle database is, far and away, a better Enterprise product; it blows MS out of the water in terms of performance and scalablity. However, the developer tools (iSQL and iSQL+) are terrible. IMO you can't compare SQL Server 7 to 10g.

I understand what you are saying. The mitigating factor for why we chose 10g over upgrading MSSQL Server was that we were moving away from a Windows environemnt to a *nix environment.

Quoted: Also the Developer tools for MS can not be beat and I say that as a 7 year Java guy.

As a fellow 7 year Java guy, this we can agree on. I'm really missing query analyzer.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: We just switched from SQL Server 7 to Oracle 10g. The Oracle database is, far and away, a better Enterprise product; it blows MS out of the water in terms of performance and scalablity. However, the developer tools (iSQL and iSQL+) are terrible. IMO you can't compare SQL Server 7 to 10g. I understand what you are saying. The mitigating factor for why we chose 10g over upgrading MSSQL Server was that we were moving away from a Windows environemnt to a *nix environment. Quoted: Also the Developer tools for MS can not be beat and I say that as a 7 year Java guy. As a fellow 7 year Java guy, this we can agree on. I'm really missing query analyzer.

Understood, I we migrated from MSSQL 6.5 to 7 when I was at Verizon and it was a pig! We had tons of issues.  

Each shop is different and you have to make decisions based on your environment, skillsets and budget. Believe me, I understand

Not only was I a Java guy but I was also a Sybase consultant for the last four years! I was lucky enough to use two different versions of Oracle (yes, believe it or not I was a Sybase employee developing against an Oracle backends ) and I can honestly say that so far I am very impressed with SQL Server 2005 and the developer tools.

Oracle - Now this is worth a first post.
My group uses it with a  .NET front-end for over 30 different applications.  The biggest reason we use it is for large databases (14 months of EVERY long distance calls from everyone's favorite .gov agency). It is very expensive but very solid - never a glitch/failure in my 7 years. We also make good use of PL/SQL to define/enforce our business logic. We've researched cheaper databases (mySQL), but found they were not close to what Oracle could give us.  I'm just starting to get into SQL Server and think it's a fairly good product, especially for the money. Oracle's Admin/Dev tools leave something to be desired considering the money paid. We use T.O.A.D for everything Oracle - it rules!!! - SpaceAce

Their unoffical motto is "Get the Money" or "Get the Fucking Money"

Quoted: Their unoffical motto is "Get the Money" or "Get the Fucking Money"

You might be onto something.

Quoted: Their database kicks ass (probably the best you can get), but is expensive. They offer solutions as well, but I do not have a lot of experience with their consulting and services people. But they can't be any worse than PeopleSoft.

PeopleSoft isn't a RDBMS.  Oracle, MS SQL Server, MySQL etc are databases.  PeopleSoft is an ERP system, that can run on Oracle as its database. <--- never mind, I see you were talking about Oracle's ERP.

Oh, and for the record:  Oracle is good....almost as good as MS SQL Server

Oracle makes you deal with all kinds of packages and crap.  The thing that makes SQL Server so great is its integration with Microsoft's middleware and Dot Net.

Well, I can't add much. . .

Oracle is king of the hill as far as database stuff goes.  And it had better be for what you have to pay for it.  We use them for serious GIS apps.  Solid as a rock.  Has the ability to use Java for stored procs, which is nice.

As others have said, their developer tools SUCK.  Used TOAD for several years, now using Raptor/SQL Developer, which is released  by Oracle (so it is fairly well integrated), but it is a Beta software (so it is quite buggy) and written in Java (so it is slower than the 7 year itch).

Quoted: After using it for the last 5 or 6 yrs. my company is going to SAP.

You Poor Fucker!!!!, SAP is a big dos feeling pain in the ass. I would rather piss glass than deal with that junk. Needless to say this is an everyday comment I make to myself as I use it every day.

Quoted: I'm interested to get an understanding of who the Oracle people are out there, and your thoughts on what you know about their solutions.

Ahh, where to begin...

Oracle DB is one of the best.  It's rock solid, performs and is expensive.
Oracle App server is good.  I can't really compare it to much else personally, but it works.
Oracle EBusiness suite is a good ERP (like PeopleSoft) and just as any of those large ERP's you hate it when you are done.  Very much a pick your poison deal.  I've never met a PeopleSoft implementor that likes peoplesoft, same for the ebiz suite.  I will say that the software doesn't crash on me.
Oracle Consulting.  Just as any other, some know what they are doing, some don't.
Oracle Support.  Metalink is a good resource once you learn how to search for things. dealing with TARs can be a pain and a lot of back and forth with folks from other countries then waiting forever for a one off patch.

I currently sysadmin (We now have a DBA, I used to do that too) 2 Oracle DB's (8i and 10g) Oracle Portal (Web/App server and DB/LDAP server) Oracle ebiz 11i implimentation (Production and a bunch of testing instances) With all of the oracle stuff I deal with, I can say that it never goes down.  There are pieces that are glitchy, but the whole is very solid.

Now the bad stuff...  Dealing with the total package is a pain.  Oracle 10g app server is about 20 billion separate products all with insane version numbers and all with bugs that require patching.  Getting all the pieces to work together is almost impossible until you patch everything perfectly.  Now, if it's just the DB you need, that's not a problem, just one thing.

MS Oracle is good for huge apps and huge amounts of data, but costs an insane amount.  However, if you don't need to store huge amounts of data or have insane numbers of concurrent users, MySQL can handle about 80-90% of what you need and is free!.

I've developed a large number of small to medium sized applications over the years -- none of them have more than 100 concurrent users and MySQL worked great.  

It's sort of like this:

Insane number of records | insane number of concurrent users -> $$$$ Oralce $$$$$
!Insane number of records &&  !insane number of concurrent users -> MySql + bonus for developer

Quoted: However, if you compared SQL Server 2005 with 10g you would find similar performance and scalability but as far as features go (CLR, Web Services, XML services, Analysis Service, , Reporting services, Snapshots & mirroring) SQL Server 2005 kicks the shit out of 10g and for a hell of a lot less money. Also the Developer tools for MS can not be beat and I say that as a 7 year Java guy.

The only reason MS includes CLR, Web Services, and XML services in their database is because they don't have an application server. Some would say those services do not belong in a database. I tend to agree. I prefer to see a clear delineation in services.

If it turns out I want to port my data to DB2 or Oracle, and I used CLR, now I'm screwed.

If not for IIS, MS would have SQL Server serving HTML pages.

Quoted: Oracle makes you deal with all kinds of packages and crap.  The thing that makes SQL Server so great is its integration with Microsoft's middleware and Dot Net.

That's because they drank the Java kool-aid. Everyone is drinking the Java kool-aid along with Oracle just as a way to counter Microsoft.

The thing that .NET has over everyone else is the fact they have a unified system. You don't get that with Java or J2EE, and because of it, .NET is making headway.

Quoted: Oracle's Admin/Dev tools leave something to be desired considering the money paid. We use T.O.A.D for everything Oracle - it rules!!! - SpaceAce

You're not the first to say that. When I was evaluating Oracle 8 and 9 several years ago, I was astonished how crappy the Oracle Admin tools are. They were ugly, sluggish, flakey, and just generally shit code.

The problem was their selection of Java and Swing. Swing is just ugly. It's crap. It does nothing well.