whm@megaron.UUCP (07/31/86)
We're looking for a UNIX DBMS and are interested in seeing what folks on the net might recommend. We've investigated some of the commercial DBMS products and the prices are a little more than we're interested in paying given our perceived applications. Even with educational discounts, the prices seem to range from $6k to $20k (and up) for the initial purchase, with typically $5k a year in maintenance. We know that Ingres comes with BSD, but some persons have cast vague dispersions on it. Is the Ingres that comes with BSD (we're running 4.3bsd, incidentally) in fact suitable for "real" applications, or is it more at home in the educational/experimental realm? Are there other quasi-free DBMS systems available or is Ingres about the only such thing? As far as commercial DBMS products go, does anyone have any recommendations or disrecommendations? Are there any products that are less expensive than described above? Assuming that I get some useful information back, I'll summarize and post it. (If you wish to remain anonymous, be sure to say so.) Bill Mitchell whm@arizona.edu {ucbvax,noao,mcnc,utah-cs}!arizona!whm p.s. Mail through ihnp4 seems to be somewhat unreliable these days, so an alternate route is recommended. If you can reach the Internet, the best bet is to do that and then send it on to whm@arizona.edu.