If you caught my Oracle article, you'll remember how harshly I criticized the 8.1.5 Linux release for installation and database creation difficulties ("tortures" would be more accurate, if too colorful). The operating system is the KRUD distribution July 2000 release, based on Red Hat 6.2. My review machine is a Pentium II 500 with 256 MB RAM and 4 GB of disk space available for DB2. It is certainly an improvement over 8.1.5. I learned about that fix from Bhavin Shah off. Rather than fixing it in place, I skipped two lines down and added "VERSION="8.1" right above the line "STATUS=1. To fix that, edit $ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart, find the offending string VERSION="8.2". Someone seems to have decided to set the Oracle version to 8.2 when the script needs to see version 8.1 to run properly. I was able to improve that somewhat by fixing what seems to be an appalling bug in the dbstart script. Unfortunately, the dbassist-generated instances seem more brittle, retreating into "Oracle not available" cocoons at the slightest provocation. That should eliminate the terrible sequence of scripts and hacks that I detailed in my article for creating instances. The installer works far more reliably and, most importantly for those with limited time on their hands, the dbassist GUI now seems to create database instances properly without Java null pointer exceptions and other JNI weirdness. That sensible and helpful step eliminates the earlier confusion with correct JDK/JRE versions. First, Oracle now comes with the required JRE (1.1.8) in the package. It turns out that a good part of that promise was fulfilled. The promise was that that release would fix the many bugs and problems with Oracle 8.1.5 that I lamented in my recent review on LinuxWorld. Oracle 8.1.6, a.k.a Oracle 8i Release 2, was announced for Linux in February, with a free download available in March. Oracle 8i Release 2 better but still brittle You might be wondering why IBM doesn't gzip it as well, but it turns out that most of the archive contents are RPMs, which already compress their contents. Besides, linuxpecmn.tar was a pretty modest-sized download (relative to its peers) at 75 MB. There was an option to order a CD, but the last time I ordered a DB2 CD from IBM (UDB 6.2), delivery took over two months, and I wanted to have a look this year. I downloaded IBM DB2 personal edition from the source (see Resources). Promising the full panolpy of enterprise database features, from a robust ANSI SQL-92 core to Object Database (if not yet SQL-99) extensions to administration, network, performance tuning, and replication tools, to extenders for geospacial systems, XML, hard-core financial number-crunching, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Big Blue has followed through with Linux versions of each subsequent release. In fact, DB2 for Linux was originally to be available at no charge, and it only became payware after IBM noticed high demand from corporate customers. IBM first ported its Universal Database to Linux in version 6.0, in the great 1998-1999 wave of commercial database ports that also starred Oracle, Informix, Borland, and Sybase. IBM has made moves in that direction from both the hardware end, such as the Thinkpad, to the software end, such as the subject of this article: DB2. Not that IBM is incapable of splashy software: its remarkable Alphaworks project has contributed rather nifty stuff to the Java and XML communities (pretty much all of which runs on Linux).īesides contributing to free Linux software, IBM has been supporting Linux with its popular and well respected commercial offerings ("nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"). Jikes, IBM JDK, Apache patches, and a Linux port to the 300 series mainframes (someone was very bored) are not exactly the sorts of goodies that have a Linux pundit hopping up and down, but they provide real, solid bases for businesses looking at Linux for critical tasks. The truth is that IBM's many contributions to Linux have been typical Big Blue: very practical and thus very boring. That is all very odd because since Big Blue's first altar conversion a couple of years ago, it has done a great deal for the Linux community (despite purported resistance from the AIX group), but by constantly reproclaiming its allegiance, it gives the impression that it never followed through on prior pledges. It seems every six months at some Linux show or even a general PC show, IBM pledges across-the-board Linux support. – IBM has become legendary in the Linux community for its repeated announcements and reannouncements regarding Linux support.
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