[SGVLUG] OT: reminder for those who went to MS Heroes event togetSQL NOW

[Charles N Wyble]

John E. Kreznar wrote:
> "BlankReg" <BlankReg at earthlink.net> writes:
>
> > ... It occurred to me that they might continue to do SQL Server
> > giveaways until they actually ship the product.
>
> How can the availability of an open source SQL Server be accelerated
> so these MS inducements to relapse lose their appeal?

So how many people on this list actually use/develop/support Microsoft
applications? Further more how many people use/develop/support Linux
applications? How many people do both?

I fall in the category of someone who does both. I use/develop/support
Microsoft and Linux applications for a wide variety of organizations and
needs.

I have done everything from build a complete custom systems management
solution for a Windows desktop environment, to maintain a presentation
graphics package for Linux before OpenOffice was available. Speaking of
OpenOffice I devoted hundreds of man hours to making
Word/Excel/Powerpoint file support better. 

On the infrastructure side I have provided system engineering and
administration for large Linux and Windows server and desktop farms. 

Both systems have there strengths and weaknesses.

On the infrastructure side, Linux lacks the incredibly powerful and rich
management tools that Windows has. Group policy/System Center/Power
Shell/Active Directory is so incredibly powerful. It lowers the cost of
systems management by a huge amount.

Fortunately tools like ControlTier ( http://www.controltier.com/ ) are
now available which bring capabilities like this to Linux. However its
not nearly as easy to use as the MS suite.

On the development side, both Windows and Linux have very solid and
mature systems. I have used Visual Studio a fair amount, and I also use
Eclipse and Netbeans.

SQL Server 2005/2008 is a very powerful system. It has very powerful
data warehouse/reporting utilities and all sorts of OLAP/OLTP
functionality etc.

A powerful opensource alternative is called BizGres (
http://www.bizgres.org/home.php ). I have yet to use it, but I plan to
deploy it in a few months for a several hundred TB per day data warehouse. 

Sun sells a hardware/software solution at about $25,000 a TB that uses
GreenPlum/KETL/Jasper Reports. We may end up purchasing that solution if
it gives us significant cost savings.

One of the problems that I have with the Linux community in Southern
California, is that many of them who participate on the mailing lists
aren't large scale enterprise users, or even supporting a small to
medium sized growth company. The people who are qualified to make a lot
of these software decisions aren't discussing them.

So you have a whole lot of home/hobbyist users saying "use open source
software" as the end all to be all, when they haven't managed more then
a 10 node network on a DSL line.  Speaking of networking, don't even get
me started on the power of cisco devices vs Linux routing (awesome
packages like Quagga non withstanding).

Charles