Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!DMasterson
From: DMasterson@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: $199 Oracle Special PC version.
Message-ID: <5616@cup.portal.com>
Date: 19 May 88 01:22:30 GMT
References: <296@intek01.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 42
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.2888

In message <296@intek01.UUCP>, mark@intek01.UUCP writes:
>I've seen some rather disturbing feedback on Oracle products here, but
>no specific mention of this product.  Has anyone here tried it?  Does
>it work?  Does it perform well?  Is the user interface flashy?
>
>We're VARs, and I'm pretty jaundiced by now after looking at scads of 
>database products, but hope springs eternal.  Thanks in advance for any
>feedback.
>
I tried Oracle on both an IBM-PC and a VAX recently with disappointing
results.  Don't get me wrong, the system works and provides all the database
capabilities that Oracle is (in)famous for.  The user interface, though,
leaves a lot to be desired (definite room for a VAR to work on).  I understand
that they will be releasing a new version of their Report Writer with a much
flashier interface (I played with their demo), but I haven't heard anything
about the rest of their system.  The areas that Oracle suffers most for in
either the PC or Vax version are:

1.  Documentation - the documents I worked with looked like they had been put
together by first year techies.  They had dozens of instances of unfinished
sentences, half complete paragraphs, two halves of two separate paragraphs
joined, circular references (sec. A says see sec. B which says see sec. A),
duplicate sections (right next to each other), and others I can't think of off
hand.

2.  System setup - Unlike the usual "load and go" methodology on a PC,
Oracle has a number of pitfalls that can really hurt unless your experienced
enough to know what you're doing.  Things like system setup and database
structure are not explained very well.  I had one Oracle rep. intimate to me
that this is the way they keep the Education department in business (if they
don't understand it, they'll come to us to explain it).  Oracle has lost a few
accounts because of this.

3.  User Interface - the main problem here is that Oracle does not take
advantage of the presentation capabilities of the system they are running on
(the new Report Writer changes this).  Also, the various components of the
system look like they were written by different people (we all know that
something this big is going to be written by different groups, but the casual
user shouldn't notice this in using it!).  You get the idea.

David Masterson
DMasterson@cup.portal.com