Best Open Source Alternatives To Enterprise Apps 348
PeekAB00 writes "With 2009 IT budgets getting chopped down John Perez came up with this list of 25 best alternatives to enterprise applications (e.g DimDim over Webex, SugarCRM instead of Seibel, Zenoss over HP OpenView). John's list is somewhat eclectic. I am curious to hear what other enterprise (let's be frank ... expensive) apps I can replace this year with open source ones. I am particularly interested in back-up and email archiving suggestions."
Full text searching engines (Score:5, Interesting)
Whatever you've got, consider replacing it with Sphinx [sphinxsearch.com], which is awesome. I'm using it with Rails and the Ultrasphinx plugin and it's been great - doing excerpts (for example, notice the highlighted results from a search for 'combat' [militarypr...glists.com]) - was a piece of cake.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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I use Sphinx as well on http://www.mystock.com/ [mystock.com] and can agree that it's amazing. Also, if you're using UltraSphinx I must suggest you have a look at Thinking Sphinx, it's a better Rails plugin all around though I can't speak to your specific use case. FWIW it also works in Merb.
I actually just donated some money to Sphinx yesterday, because Andrew Askyanoff (lead dev from Russia) spent some time on Skype with me getting an issue sorted out where Sphinx's BM25 algorithm was a bad algorithm to use on a part
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AMANDA (Score:2, Informative)
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How well does Amanda work if you're not using a tape backup system?
Re:AMANDA (Score:5, Informative)
Amanda has support for 'virtual tapes' -- files that hold your backups. You can then burn these virtual tapes to DVD or BD later.
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The documentation isn't as straightforward, since it assumes you are. But it's not overly complicated from what I've seen. (Disclaimer: I use it with tapes)
-N
Bacula (Score:2)
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Bacula (Score:2)
Amanda had some problems last time I looked. Bacula isn't TSM by any means but it's actually not bad.
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Why AMANDA over bacula? The lack of native clients makes me scared of AMANDA.
SugarCRM is old hat. (Score:4, Informative)
OpenGOO kicks the crap out of SugarCRM when it comes to useability. I was ableto switch an entire office over to it with a crapload of buy-in by the secretaries and other non techie users simply because of how easy it is to use.
http://opengoo.org/ [opengoo.org]
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I've only played with OpenGoo on my test server as a single user so far but it impressed me with the speed and ease of use. I expected a word processor through a browser to be slow but it's damn snappy. The presentation suite looks useful too. I did notice a lack of spreadsheet software in the suite (at least for now) but it has the advantage of being able to install on your own server, and therefor keeping Google's greasy paws out of your data. It seemed stable enough too, perhaps I was expecting an early
Re:SugarCRM is old hat. (Score:5, Informative)
SugarCRM and OpenGoo are entirely different beasts; OpenGoo is Google Apps you can install on your own hardward; while SugarCRM is designed for Sales Force Automation, as well as a platform for design business applications.
That said, SugarCRM is a great platform for building business web applications on to replace aging VB, Foxpro, and other legacy database applications, that can be designed with a point and click interface and extended easily with PHP. I think most of the applications I've done for my previous SMB employer in the past I could have built on SugarCRM is half of the time and with more features.
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http://demo.opengoo.org/en_us/index.php [opengoo.org]
Not Found /en_us/index.php was not found on this server.
The requested URL
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.10 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.10 OpenSSL/0.9.8i DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at demo.opengoo.org Port 80
the most cost effective applications on the market (Score:4, Informative)
That's what the TFA says.
Strangely they include stuff like vBulletin, which, while open source software, is not free software. Neither beer nor speech.
I wonder how anything with a non-zero pricetag can be more cost-effective than something that costs nothing.
They should have mentioned phpBB instead of vBulletin.
Re:the most cost effective applications on the mar (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about now...but I used to monitor bugtraq and it scared me into never, EVER using phpBB.
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Bugtraq isn't where you list bugs. It's where you list gaping security vulnerabilities, of which phpBB is one of the biggest offenders in the world.
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Training and support, for starters. You're pretty much on your own on these 2 things when it comes to so called "free" software, and the TCO ends up being more expensive than a paid application.
Re:the most cost effective applications on the mar (Score:5, Insightful)
You're pretty much on your own on these 2 things when it comes to so called "free" software, and the TCO ends up being more expensive than a paid application.
That is not true generally, although it can be if you really go out of your way to implement something badly.
It's a MS talking point and it conveniently overlooks that most of the time with proprietary software you're paying for a steep license fee AND pay for support or a support contract separately. We use majority OSS here and the TCO blows away proprietary alternatives.
If we need support on an OSS choice we choose to purchase it, so far we haven't needed any. The other bogus argument frequently raised is that there's a productivity hit on time you spend researching solutions for OSS issues. That's another one that never happens in reality and also ignores the hours proprietary admins spend pouring over knowledge base searches.
Most for profit companies are squeezing their workforce so hard for profits these days that service in many companies is worse than what you get from OSS.
The near total BS of support contracts. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a MS talking point and it conveniently overlooks that most of the time with proprietary software you're paying for a steep license fee AND pay for support or a support contract separately.
Something the Dijkstra noted and is worth repeating. When people say you need to pay for an application and support. You are often saying "You are paying for an application that likely does not work as described in some way and us to come fix it".
This isn't maintenance in the classic sense. There is little in the w
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If you're using it on a intranet server for business collaboration then it'd be fine but as far as putting it on the web, I'd avoid it. I actually just migrated the two phpbb forums I had to vB.
SMF is the other major open source contender and it does somethings better a
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So they could easily do the same thing and go commercial and non-freely available too without any rights for anybody to fork it later on. Hence why I'm not interested in using their forum for any serious site.
Re:the most cost effective applications on the mar (Score:5, Informative)
Typically, the Slashdot summary gets it wrong. The article is called "The 25 Best Alternatives To Your Enterprise Applications & Functions" and describes the list as "some of the most cost effective applications on the market that can easily replace some of your more expensive Enterprise solutions and functions." However, the article confusingly has an Open Source logo prominently displayed and doesn't very well distinguish between Open Source, free of cost, and low cost alternatives.
Which Enterprise? (Score:5, Funny)
NX-1
NCC1701
NCC1701a
NCC1701D
NCC1701E
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Re:Which Enterprise? (Score:5, Funny)
That would be NCC 1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D. Or even E.
Database Sofware (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Database Sofware (Score:5, Funny)
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I'd also argue for FreeBSD over Linux.
Everyone likes a good FAPP stack.
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But you could always LARP. People seem to like that for some ungodly reason.
Actaully... (Score:3, Funny)
A LAPP stack sounds kind of cool... Folks could call themselves LAPP-landers.
Of course, like LAMP as an acronym, it still suffers from the potential disagreement about what the last P stands for (Perl, PHP, Python, ...) (note preceding list is
in alphabetical order and implies no stated preference :-))
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OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:5, Funny)
I wish someone had told me that sooner.
I was led to believe I had to install Linux *first* before I could use OpenOffice. Now that makes me wonder what other free alternatives exist for common applications - like PowerPoint. Why waste money buying expensive software when I can just use zero-cost alternatives?
Re:OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:4, Funny)
Don't you know that Linux runs on top of Windows [zdnet.com]? Someone mentioned it yesterday. It should be easy to install!
(ok... are you for real? OpenOffice HAS a Powerpoint replacement)
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Microsoft just spent $9 billion and many years to create Vista, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. IBM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing OS/2 but could never keep up with Windows.
Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft. Its just not possible that a freeware like the Linux could be extended to the point where it runs the entire computer fron start to finish, without using some of the more critical parts of windows. Not possible.
Is this a joke?
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It's astroturf. (Score:4, Informative)
It is a very well written troll.
FTFY.
Visit jerryleecooper .com (link busted on purpose) for more trolls in the same vein. Looks like astroturf.
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In particular try this [jerryleecooper.com]. It made me laugh hysterically.
Re:It's astroturf. (Score:4, Funny)
This guy got him beat:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1PPJ35WY17216 [amazon.com]
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The part I found odd was this: "Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft."
Anyone with even half a brain knows Apple has a working OS and does not need Mickeysoft.
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I don't see any FPGA development suites listed on Mr. Perez's homepage. At $10,000 per package I guess that's not something programmers are willing to just give away.
Re:OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:4, Informative)
Altera has the free-beer "web edition" of Quartus which is full featured and installs to your computer. I have no clue why they call it web edition. I have seen open source simulators, but not synthesizers. It has more to do with the FPGA internals being proprietary, I think, than a desire to monopolize the software.
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Re:OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:5, Informative)
Open Office contains Impress which is comparable to Powerpoint. Animated slides/drawings are much easier to do on Impress than on Powerpoint at the time I used both.
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Re:OpenOffice works on Windows??? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, for serious work Latex is much better.
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Install the xubuntu-desktop package, only in breezy. If you are using Hoary now you will have to wait till Breezy is released and you upgrade.
Breezy? Hoary? I wish they'd speak in normal language.
Yea kind a lame list. (Score:2)
"MySQL - The best and most cost effective choice for a free SQL/Database environment that needs to be hosted in the cloud."
Hosted in a CLOUD!!!!
Hey MySQL is actually a good choice for a lot of uses but then so is Postgres. I have not done much with FireBird.
And for Content managment they left out Drupal and Zope.
And just putting Linux down for the server... Grrr...
What kind of server? Yes as a server OS a flavor of Linux is a good choice but some are better then other.
I wouldn't pick say Fedora for a server
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Firebird also works well for applications where you want to archive your entire database, and have separate db's that are similar to eachother. However, I wo
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I really like CentOS for servers. YUM is very easy to use. Of course when it comes to servers I am a command line or web interface kind of guy. I never run X on a server. I use OpenSuSE at work because our sysadmin likes it.
Solaris really interests me now. ZFS seems like the ideal file system for a NAS, It runs Postgres, MySQL, Apache, and Samba so I do find it an interesting option.
The lack of hardware support isn't a big issue for a server so I think it could be a good choice.
NOT all open source (Score:5, Insightful)
Uhhh, a lot of the solutions mentioned in TFA are not open source, but they are cheaper than their more expensive competition. i.e. Basecamp, dimdim, etc. are not open source..
OTOH, SugarCRM, asterisk, open office are open source, free in both senses.
Anyway, an interesting list...
Re:NOT all open source (Score:5, Informative)
DimDim went GPL and you can download the source from their website.
Bacula is an outstanding cross platform solution (Score:4, Informative)
If you're looking to back up Unix, Mac, and Windows systems, then check out Bacula:
http://www.bacula.org/en/
I've got this running on 7 systems at work. Some use tapes, while others back up to a RAID array. It is fast, stable, and robust. It does not rely on Samba, NFS, or any other services. It has its own file and storage daemons. It will also do VSS backups of Windows clients, allowing open files to be backed up.
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It has a little friend (I'd say brother, but they aren't in any way related) called Backuppc which does disk-to-disk backups. It won't natively back up open Windows files, so database dumps or VSS scripting is needed.
It does, however, do pooling (industry calls it deduplication). I have the equivalent of 9 TB of backups (2 months of weekly fulls and daily incrementals) stored on less than one TB of space. The actual amount of raw data being backed is about 1.5 TB: 558 GB compressed and 188 GB uncompresse
Check the costs (Score:5, Interesting)
We are migrating a whole bunch of sites away from eRoom because it's so expensive. (I didn't know it was open source, but the guy who brought it into our enterprise is a huge proponent of open source. He has rapidly lost interest in it over the past 12 months, mainly because it was a headache to administer and an embarrassment in a business sense because of the costs.)
Open source or not, I don't particularly care; I'm interested in doing the best thing for the business. In this case, eRoom is so expensive as to be unjustifiable, and we're realizing substantial cost savings by migrating to a closed source solution.
Bottom line: eRoom may (or may not) be a good technical solution, but I'm amused by seeing it in an article about using open source alternatives to save money.
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Why would Eroom be more expensive than the closed-source software?
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{Glib answer #1} Because it's owned by Documentum.
{Glib answer #2, but also serious} Why wouldn't it be? Just because it's open source doesn't automatically make it cheap/free.
embarrassment in a business sense .. (Score:3, Interesting)
Expensive, how so, licenses, maintenance, down time, explain Spock ?
[we're realizing substantial cost savings by migrating to a closed source solution.]"
What 'closed source solution did your company choose, who did the choosing, how is this solution saving your costs?
"I didn't know it was open source
Forum software enterprise, but no Exchange? (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems like it was a stretch. Community and forum software as "enterprise"? Uh, no. I desperately need an open source alternative to Exchange/Outlook and point of sale software for my business.
Re:Forum software enterprise, but no Exchange? (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at Zimbra. They have a free version and a licensed (read: supported) version, and because the client is written in AJAX it'll work in most every modern browser. They also have connectors for Outlook and Evolution, and I think Thunderbird, if you'd rather not use a web client.
Zimbra is so good, I'm shocked it wasn't on his list. The one caveat is it's owned by Yahoo!, so if they either go away (doesn't seem likely) or do get bought out by Microsoft (also doesn't seem likely at this time), the support for it may disappear. But then, it's open source, it'll never really die, will it?
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Zimbra is so good, I'm shocked it wasn't on his list. The one caveat is it's owned by Yahoo!, so if they either go away (doesn't seem likely) or do get bought out by Microsoft (also doesn't seem likely at this time), the support for it may disappear. But then, it's open source, it'll never really die, will it?
Ah. Funny you should say that.
I looked into Zimbra and actually, it's not as simple as that. It's licensed under a modified MPL, not GPL, with a very heavy trademark protection stance - you can't reb
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So as long as you maintain the trademarks and logos as required, you're otherwise free to use the software as you choose. Should Yahoo! stop publishing Zimbra, there's nothing saying you couldn't keep using it and even keep developing it, as long as you don't change the name or trademarks associated with it. Yes, that means you can't fork it to become Ximbra (for example),
It also means that you can't fork it under the same name unless you happen to own the rights to the name "Zimbra". The GPL uses copyright law to its advantage, the ZPL uses trademark law.
My fear is someone like Microsoft buying the rights to the name Zimbra in order to kill the product.
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True open source exchange replacement ain't easiest to find.
eGroupware 1.6.x & Thunderbird (boosted with Lightning calendar and Funambol mozilla plugin to do SyncML on contacts & calendar) & SyncML capable mobile phones is what we are using quite successfully.
Zarafa & Zimbra & Scalix are alternatives too IF you are ready to pay for advanced options.
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http://www.citadel.org/doku.php
I haven't used it yet, but Citadel is often touted as the piece you're looking for.
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There are lots of mail servers, lots of Outlook connectors (that you usually have to pay for), lots of half-attempts that get most of it right, but I never found anything that did the total p
BIRT Over Crappy COGNOS (Score:3, Informative)
If you're developing an Enterprise App in Java, for example, you often end up with some requirement to add reporting to the system. There are several approaches and all of them come with costs and pain. Having been the proud owner of several batches of these requirements, I have experience to offer a relevant point of view. To wit:
You need to write a custom meta-data-driven reporting system:
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Do I get shot down in flames for mentioning Jasper Reports [jasperforge.org]?
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I would like to see my work... (Score:2)
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My university uses a proprietary LMS, while the Math department in particular uses Moodle.
I think Moodle is fine and all, especially for being GPL, but I can't for the life of me figure out why those math guys don't use the superior product they have at their disposal.
OPENSiebel! (Score:2)
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Glassfish/OpenMQ instead of Websphere/WebsphereMQ? (Score:2, Interesting)
quickbooks? (Score:2)
our small business uses Quickbooks for accounting.
I'm not sure whether I hate Quickbooks or Intuit (the vendor) more.
Is there a decent open source business accounting package that our accountant can deal with?
We are using it for invoicing, accounts receivable, check register, etc. Nothing fancy.
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It's enterprise-class and you can buy support from the vendor.
Open Source Solutions (Score:4, Informative)
7-zip instead of WinZip
Alfresco for document management and workflow
Zimbra (or Google Apps) instead of Exchange
Firefox instead of IE (yeah, you'll save money by not having to remove all the magically installing spyware)
MySQL or PostgreSQL instead of MSSQL (come on people, open source is about choice - use whatever open source dbms you want and quit fussing!)
xTuple instead of Quickbooks (great enterprise-class accounting/sales/CRM/inventory software that can truly rival the "polished quality" of Quickbooks with pretty much the same features)
Microsoft Project (Score:3, Interesting)
I would retitle this... (Score:2)
"Least-Bad Alternatives to Enterprise Apps."
Everything that's mentioned on this list has some Achilles heel--though it's suitable for some purposes it's not an exact replacement for what's mentioned.
Many of the "geekier" replacements (i.e. Digium which is actually Asterisk) have hidden admin costs. OpenOffice has hidden training costs (and frankly, every non-technical person we've put in front of it hates it--they all want Office 2007.) The ticketing systems are pretty lightweight. SugarCRM is pretty lig
a critical application for our enterprise (Score:5, Funny)
I am hoping someone can suggest a replacement for "Hello World" which, according to our engineers, is a critical application for our enterprise.
Sincerely,
PHB
Zabbix better than Zenoss (Score:5, Informative)
We just did an evaluation of tools like Nagios, Munin, Zenoss & Zabbix and chose Zabbix [zabbix.com]. It's a little more effort to get going than Zenoss: compile from sources for the free version create your own account, move the files around yourself, etc than Zenoss (RPM install). But once going you're instantly more productive. Zenoss touts their strength as an agentless solution, but in practice I found that I didn't get a single system out of an initial scan of 50 PCs that picked up all the information is was supposed to get, or didn't give me a splat of SNMP errors to boot. Plus you have to block out a day to learn the Zenoss language of zenThis, zenThat, zenTheOther to even begin to understand the product and work out what you want to capture.
Zabbix by comparison was a loads easier. Edit the client conf file to point back to your server then copy the client agent conf file to the target, and the agent binary, following their instructions (create an account for it on Linux) start it, and you're done on the client side. From the server, login to the web page and follow the instructions for adding a new client and linking it to the appropriate system template. Instantly it starts collecting data and (after a period of time) you can view what it's collecting in graph form. The graphs have a nice zoom feature too: just click, drag and release on the bit you want to expand. I'm not even beginning to do this tool justice, it can do so much more than this. Go see their web site.
Zenoss looks a bit prettier, but Zabbix blew them away on ease of use once it was up and running. Oh, and Zabbix can do agent-less too using SNMP templates for things like network switches, if that's the way you want to go. Oh (again) be aware that if you have a mix 32bit and 64 of Linux builds (as we do) that you compile the agent binary for the box you're putting it on. They provide pre-built win32 and win64 agents for you.
This guy needs to be educated (Score:2)
Open Source software
(free, as in speech)
and
Free Software
(free, as in beer)
Several of his suggestions are available at no cost - but they are NOT open source.
Not enterprise at all! (Score:5, Insightful)
I keep hearing about 'alternatives to enterprise software' and invariably the same mistake pops up over and over: Alternatives to enterprise software are non-enterprise software!
Seems pretty obvious, right? Let's look at what is commonly meant by "enterprise," at least by those who live in that world.
I want software that has been thoroughly documented, tested, and proven. It NEEDS a decently long track record! It NEEDS a formal support mechanism behind it.
If I buy something like backup software (with a support contract of course), The vendor has to be able to tell me, "It will work _this_ way." Not "it should..." or "we thought it would..." But hey, bugs happen, right? When I discover a bug that affects my enterprise, I have to be able to go to the vendor and say "fix this" and have it done. When something breaks in the middle of the night, I need to be able to get definitive technical support within a pre-specified time frame.
Enterprise software is only marginally about the compiled code you get on a CD. It's primarily about support, robustness, and guarantees of quality. It's about strict patch release management, and conservative changes.
If you want to run (say) Amanda instead of NetBackup, that's fine--it's a decent piece of software as far as I've seen; but understand that by itself it's not an enterprise tool. The support mechanism around it is what makes it enterprise software (or not).
It's a simple cost analysis--how much will your company lose if software "x" dies, and how much of an increased risk is there in using freeware vs. buying a commercial product from a given vendor?
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The alternative explanation of swordgeek's definition of "Enterprise" software (Star Trek jokes aside) is that, according to his definition, there is currently no enterprise software available anywhere, from anyone, nor has there ever been any.
I'm willing to accept that as a reasonable answer.
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I think your right but a bit harsh on MySQL. There are tasks that MySQL is great for. However to only mention MySQl is a massive over site. Postgres and Firebird are other options that may be a better solution for some tasks.
I am a big Postgres fan but MySQL and even SQLLite can be very useful tools.
Re:Can't take recommendations seriously (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting. Tell that to Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Nokia and YouTube. Or, how about Slashdot and Digg - capable of bringing down moderately sized web sites with the click of a million mice?
Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL [wikipedia.org]
http://www.mysql.com/customers/customer.php?id=281 [mysql.com]
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/generate-article.php?type=ss&id=slashdot [mysql.com]
Just as a single example, what kind of scalability do most people need beyond Facebook and Wikipedia. I work for a very large internet company that has standardized on Oracle, and we have several well-paid DBAs who spend all day monitoring and tweaking our database servers. My previous job was a different large company that used MySQL as a back end for a very similar infrastructure (Java EE, Spring, Hibernate, Clustered in a similar way) with not a single full-time DBA (the helpdesk manager was the only real DBA other than the deployment engineers).
Now, I'm not a professional DBA. I'm just a programmer, but I was one of the maintainers of the MySQL server (I don't get to touch the Oracle servers here except on my local developers instance). I can tell you from personal experience that MySQL is easier to maintain and administer, faster to start up, and requires far fewer system resources to keep going. Judging by just the performance of Wikipedia and Facebook, it seems to perform quite well under heavy load. So, please tell me what basis you have to place MySQL out of the elite top-tier of database servers?
Re:Can't take recommendations seriously (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, but none of those are very important. If a transaction fails when you're updating your Facebook profile, nobody gives a shit. I mean look at what happened to Slashdot when it got 24 million posts.
I would bet money that none of those companies use MySQL for their paycheck processing software.
I don't dislike MySQL, but I wouldn't consider it an "enterprise RDBMS".
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The problem wasn't entirely integer overflow. From the description here [slashdot.org] it sounds like they had a foreign key index using a different data type than the row it referenced. It shouldn't even be possible to do that.
Re:Can't take recommendations seriously (Score:4, Insightful)
When they say the MySQL will not scale like Oracle they are mostly right. The exceptions where MySQL works are when you design a application around MySQL and use just one installation of MySQL per application. When you do this and it works what you are really doing is using mySQL is a fancy kind of file system.
With Oracle you can build an enterprise database that holds _everything_ and all you applications can access the same database. There are some great advantages when you do this
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Interesting. Tell that to Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Nokia and YouTube. Or, how about Slashdot and Digg - capable of bringing down moderately sized web sites with the click of a million mice?
As has been discussed many times over there are a couple points to make out about these examples.
(1) *ALL* of these sites buttress MySQL with support code. Take a look at what Slashdot has to do to enable MySQL to keep up with the sites needs.
(2) None of these sites are mission critical. Would you TRUST your b
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I'm not a Microsoft fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, but I find their manage
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I don't even need to say which is the better alternative because everyone knows what it is.
MS Access?
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