Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-lcc!unisoft!mtxinu!sybase!phobos.sybase.com!tim
From: tim@sybase.com (Tim Wood)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Database Product Facts
Summary: Ask the vendor first
Keywords: vendor-offered DBMS information
Message-ID: <2898@sybase.sybase.com>
Date: 6 Feb 89 18:34:35 GMT
Sender: news@sybase.sybase.com
Reply-To: tim@sybase.com (Tim Wood)
Organization: Sybase, Inc.
Lines: 28

This is a personal plea to all current and prospective DBMS users on USENET: 
please consider whether the question you are about to ask the USENET
about a specific product could be answered by the vendor of that 
product.  Questions such as "Does X's product support a C-language
interface?" can be answered more completely and inexpensively
by company X than by the users of USENET.  Vendors are only too
happy to regale you with every fact about every feature of their
products, as you might expect.  That is their function.  If a 
specific fact is not covered in the vendor's printed material,
most will welcome calls or correspondence requesting more information.

This is not to discourage questions like "What are your actual experiences
with X's product?" or "How do I [design a database schema/form this query/
otherwise make my application work]?"  The first such question can only be 
answered by users, the second may be a "support" question requiring a 
licence, so USENET is a worthwhile way to gather those answers.   USENET can 
help fill in some of the unpredictables involved with DBMS purchase and
installation; it should not take the place of product literature or
private communications with the vendor.

Credit yourselves 2c.

-TW

{pacbell,pyramid,sun,{uunet,ucbvax}!mtxinu}!sybase!tim
..not an @ in the bunch...
Voluntary disclaimer: This message is solely my personal opinion.
		      It is not a representation of Sybase, Inc.  OK.