The Joel on Software Discussion Group

I am an oracle DBA and have been for 10 years. Well Oracle went and upgraded their support site. They basically made a site that NO ONE had issues with "better". They basically just made the interface prettier.

It doesn't work. There are 100s of posts on Oracle listservs from DBAs like me who can't get in to support. Like most DBAs I have open tickets with Oracle. They actually told me they could not performance test this before going live. (they sell performance tuning experts at $300-400/hour).

yes we can call. But calling and waiting on hold for 30-40 minutes just to tell a support person to update my ticket (it won't be the support person handling the ticket) or to tell him to forward me the update on the ticket.

They are asking to get sued. Large parts of the world run this database. Major banks run this product. If their system goes down and they have trouble getting support Oracle is in real trouble.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140613/Users_call_new_Oracle_support_portal_a_fiasco_?taxonomyId=1

This  makes my life difficult. Since I have to work longer hours to deal with this.

just griping. BTW, if your DBAs are grumpy cut them some slack. This is a real pain.

btw, switching databases isn't practical. many systems (like mine) have terabytes and terabytes of data. so moving that to microsoft is an expensive task. Also, most Oracle databases like mine run on linux/unix so its an OS change.

this is just a gripe.

MSDN (and Technet) used to be the absolute, ultimate resource for Microsoft questions.  Any question you had, if you couldn't find the answer in MSDN, it didn't exist.

Then I started using Google.

D. Lambert: "MSDN (and Technet) used to be the absolute, ultimate resource for Microsoft questions.  Any question you had, if you couldn't find the answer in MSDN, it didn't exist.

Then I started using Google."

Interesting.  I have rarely been able to find anything relevant in MSDN.  Aside from those rare exceptions, there are two ways that I have found useful information in MSDN: 1) Someone posts a link.  2) I find a link by using Google.

Usually, MSDN is not worth the effort, because I find more useful information in the other Google search results.

If Microsoft ever gets good search capability in MSDN, then I might believe that they have a chance in the search market.  Until then, no.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

++ Gene.  And not only on SQL Server.

+1 for using Google to search MSDN. 

MSDN is a great resource that MS don't provide adequate tools to help find what you need.

StackOverflow is becoming the main place I look for any technical questions these days.

What really annoys me about MSDN is that they keep changing their links, and don't even provide redirects.

I use google to search msdn
If there's something on msdn, its 99% right; if there's no msdn entry, I fall back to the rest of the google results and there the rightness starts to drop dramatically.

I seem to remember a discussion (possibly on Slashdot) about "The Worst Software Application". One wit had nominated "Anything from Oracle that has a User Interface".

OP your experience with their support web site probably falls into that category!

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=018205968162215846785:zeur6t7rqb8

Go for it.  I have always been impressed with the graphical management tools in Enterprise Manager and Management Studio.  Does Oracle have a tool like SQL Server Profiler? 

One time, about 6 years ago I did a small amount of work with a GUI for Oracle on a Solaris server.  I don't recall who wrote it, Oracle, Sun or otherwise, but it was kludgy and limited compared to Enterprise Manager, and Solaris in general, I didn't appreciate.  While I do like that "NVL" is much shorter to type out than "COALESCE", I always hate forgetting that some Oracle data types use 0 length string to be null.  Finally, I think that if I were put out of business by Bill Gates, I would not mind so much as if I were put out of business by Larry Ellison.  It's not just that I believe history shows Bill Gates would destroy my business through tough but fair strategic tactics like using market position to pre-empt me or bundle software for a lower price; but Ellison would push his sales force to whisper-campaign my customers to switch by hook or by crook (as described in the Inside the Tornado book Joel referenced this month in his Inc column).  It's also that Bill Gates ends up using the proceeds to lead the fight against malaria in Africa, but Larry Ellison commissions worlds-biggest yachts.

Go for it!

SQL Server is great! The more I use it the better it gets....like a fine wine. And the tools are so Mickey Mouse simple. Its also getting faster with each new release. Its also so well organized and designed, that you will find you get a tremendous amount of work down. And extremely reliable. Ive never had SQL Server go down on me...and thousands of times had app domains, threads, pools and boxes fail running IIs and other applications.

Im not a big fan of Reporting Server, or Business Intelligence Studio and Integration Services in SQL Server....I use them when someone is twisting my arm. But its just a great simple database tool and system and actually one the most powerful systems built by Microsoft. Ive gotten so much database work done its incredible. A very reliable and powerful tool.

Now if they would just dump Business Solutions and "Great P(l)ains" and all the horrible consulting going on in that arena, and focus on their servers and SQL we would all be better off.