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IBM Reconsiders making DB2/Linux Free
WonderClown writes "IBM is getting requests from corporate customers for the Linux version of their DB2 database, and so they reconsidering their decision to make it free. Of course, it never was free in the GNU sense anyway, since they weren't going to release the sources AFAICT. The story is here. " H: The reconsideration comes because of the huge amount of corporate interest-which I suppose is a good sign, in its own way.
Gumber sez:
Perhaps IBM can be persuaded to release a limited user development version.
I really don't have any problem paying for a modern SQL database server for use in a production environment, provided the pricing structure is reasonable, but it would be nice to have a top-notch database that I can develop on for free.
And, no, I don't think my/mSQL quite cut it. They don't support transactions, for crissake. They are perfectly fine for some applications and entirely unsuitable for others.
The MySQL license basically says you can use MySQL freely as long as you don't sell MySQL directly as part of a product. (So if you're writing and selling an app that needs "a database" but not specifically DB2, then DB2 is free. If it's directly based on that particular database, like I imagine most big commercial DB2 installations would be, then you need to license it.)
Or just say, "Free for non-commercial use, otherwise you pay for it." Commercial installations buy it, losers like me who just put it on their personal website can use it without having to pay for it.
I think that either way would be the best of both worlds: IBM gets their commercial market, the Linux community that has created the demand can use it freely.
The only ones who really want a free DB2 would be Home users. DB2 is overkill for most home users...MySQL or Postgres would be a better choice for home users.
I really don't care if DB2 is free or not, just as long as it's ported to Linux. If I need a highend database engine like DB2, then it's worth buying.
A project at work is the ideal location for DB2 running on Linux. I could roll out a large database system running on Linux and serving WinNT desktops with data. The cost savings on the server hardware running Linux would be amazing.
I see no problem with that. On the contrary, it's great that companies are interested in Linux and see it as a viable solution. Would be nice, however, if they released something like a "personal edition" for free (for personal use).
The best way to do this is release the product free of charge(which they've done) and charge for support. No fuss no muss.
I requested my copy over a month ago and still haven't seen it. I did get an offer for a free subscription to an IBM magazine in the mail yesterday, though, so I'm guessing that my name got in their database. (Their mail order department probably got /.'ed... :-)
Gumber sez:
I didn't realize that Oracle for linux was under a free development license. This is good news.
Still, it would be great if IBM adopted a similar model.
Every database vendor ought to mail a limited-user
Linux version of their database to all the schools
they can find. They should take the initiative,
rather than wait for requests. Database CD-ROMs
should hit universities like AOL disks.
I wholeheartedly agree.
DB2 is a great database system and integration tool with IBM systems, and could be with Linux also, especially where Linux workstations or networks are integrated with IBM mainframes, etc. Further, many companies who have been traditional IBM customers might WANT to pay for a DB2 version for Linux (with IBM support) and will not take a free version seriously.
Linux already has a number of excellent (free) database systems for home users and small businesses, and other more commericially oriented vendors have already released free versions of their databases, at least for small operators who can't afford to pay the usual cost for such software and services.
It doesn't have to be free or open-sorce to be good for Linux, and good for IBM.
Well...
You should look at CA-Ingres, then. It's as heavy duty as you can get and the pricing structure is absolutely fantastic. It's still in beta but you can d/l it now, get going and once the production version is released you just drop it in and keep all your existing data. And believe me, there's nothing that Oracle, DB/2 or Sybase have that Ingres doesn't. Plus it's the current version, not one step behind or anything like that.
Joe "No, I do not work for ComputerAssociates" Klemmer
Well - that means Linux has really become a
main stream OS as far as IBM is concerned.
CICS sounds pretty cool, but it seems like IBM is hustling Java in a big way. I wonder if there won't be something similar to CICS/Java?
;-)
Anyways, I'm off to grab a free copy of DB2 if I still can. Like someone else said, MySQL is great for some things and unsuitable for others.
Although if you KNOW you need transactions (rather than just clumsy LOCK requests) what the hell are you doing running the DB on Linux?
(i.e. shouldn't you have a big AIX or Solaris box?)
Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.
Is them do a free for development use and pay for deployment. And of course pay for support. Maybe a 6 month break for startups or something.
Seems sensable to me.
--Zachary Kessin
Erlang Developer and podcaster
I can see a definate downside to having all of this 'free' software (like WordPerfect for Linux for free). There are many people out there that assume that because a piece of softare is free, it is not a good piece of software.
I agree with having commercial pricing. But, I also believe that if a large company like Corel or IBM would release thier software for free for anyone to use, that that would have to be intimidating to smaller companies that would be considering doing the same, and quite frankly monetarily impossible for the smaller companies.
I dont know... I wrestle with CICS on MVS, and it is anything but trivial to use. But maybe what I am seeing is the complexity of a transaction manager - so any such product would be as complex.
There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.
Today Linux runs against NT.
Price this product acordingly and ofer similer
support options. Grow the support as the instaled
base increases ( we don't like to hold for 30
Mins. ).
The free developer version is optional but may be
needed to seed the market since the competition
is already doing that.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Ok, ok, don't over-react guys ;) :( )...
In fact DB/2 really sucks.
It really can't cope with Oracle...
It might be interesting for small applications,
if the price is ok but then, again, you could
also use PostgreSQL or maybe MySQL...
We use DB/2 and Oracle in our applications
(a huge pool of servers, with Tuxedo and TopEnd -
we develop payment systems) and, believe me,
DB/2 is broken and expensive (did you know that
you have to pay an extra license for *every
single connect* ? - you want 10 connects at a
time, you have to buy 10 of these licenses).
The point is that DB/2 _exists_ for Linux, which
makes porting applications that use DB/2 from other Unices (or NT) easy (and we are only waiting on Tuxedo for Linux to port our platform - maybe
we'll wait forever
Any application existing on Linux is making
Linux stronger against NT.
I think that now that we have office applications
(StarOffice, Corel), databases (Informix, SyBase,
Oracle, IBM), we definately need middleware!
My votes in for free for noncommercial and paid for commercial.
That being said, I think that making the software free and charging for support might be a good idea. I mean, large corporate customers will pay for support no matter what. IBM would lose the revenue from a lot of small companies that would try to get by without support, but I don't think that would account for a significant portion of their revenue anyway.
I would like to see IBM offer DB2 both for free and for charge. The only difference would be, the free download of DB2 would be unsupported - great for developers and those that could not normally afford DB2, and the purchased DB2 would come with support - any serious enterprise would go with this option. IMO - this would work great for IBM, companies, and Linux. IBM would still get their money by charging for "official" DB2 support and maintinace, companies would have a support contract, and Linux would gain more users/developers. A company could, at very little cost, buy a Linux box, install Linux and DB2 and begin development. Later, when the project gets closer to production, support for DB2 could be purchased, or the application could be migrated to an existing server running DB2.
\forall code \in C, \frac{\Delta readability(code)}{\Delta t} < 0
I agree with the above post. Linux offers a level of code compatability on more platforms that any other OS I know of (except for possibly NetBSD or OpenBSD). You can develop code on a i386, and so long as you aren't using any assembly, it will compile on a Alpha (or PPC, or Sparc, or ...) running Linux with little or no effort.
\forall code \in C, \frac{\Delta readability(code)}{\Delta t} < 0
For those of you who don't know what a transaction monitor is, it takes care of making stuff happen. So, you can define a procedure like "post comment". Then you can make your webscript for posting comments call that procedure via CICS, and CICS will make sure it gets executed. CICS takes care of errors occurring and it plugs into DB2.
Think of CICS as handling code the way DB2 handles data. Microsoft Transaction Server does the same thing but needs a lot more resources. CICS has been in use for 28 years. It's become quite popular as of late for building large websites that run on big iron.
There, I guess you know what company I like now. grin
CICS for Linux along with DB2 would almost be nirvana. (For nirvana, IBM would need to port their Java VM as well.)
My clumsy port of the X TrueType fontserver (xfstt) to OS/2
--jon. Postel is dead. May we all mourn his, and our, loss.
I'd just like to see a version of DB2 out for linux soon...preferably free, but i don't consider that a necessity at this point. considering that DB2 is an incredible database system, some linux exposure, sometime soon, would be nice.
As a commercial strategy IBM has always several products for a simular purpose at a different price in their store. It's the market or some other factor (science, politics) that forces their decision!!! (which can always be changed after a while ...)
[SIG]Please tell me, is this line of any value to you?[/SIG]