Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR) [LWN.net]

Computer Business Review reports on a survey done by the International Oracle Users Group claiming that Linux will become the top platform for Oracle databases within the next year. "By next year, respondents say those numbers will change to 44% Linux, 43% Solaris, followed by 37% Windows Server 2003 and, not surprisingly, a marked drop to 21% for Windows 2000. What's interesting is that the survey implies that migration to Linux will come, not only from Solaris, but Windows as well."

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Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR)

Posted Apr 4, 2006 14:19 UTC (Tue) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link] (3 responses)

Ok, so... 44 + 43 + 37 + 21 = 145... Are these numbers being reported in octal?

Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR)

Posted Apr 4, 2006 14:24 UTC (Tue) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link] (2 responses)

And before people jump all over me, I realize what the numbers are.... "44% of respondants said they have at least one Linux Oracle box, 43% said they have at least one Solaris Oracle box, etc..."

But what if I have 1 Linux development server, 1 Solaris development staging server, and rack after rack of Solaris production servers?

These numbers aren't nearly as interesting as knowing the breakdown of total volume served by each platform, in which case the %ages *would* add up to 100 (plus or minus a tad, for rounding error). I was just pointing out that there's a bit of information lossage in how these %ages get reported.

Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR)

Posted Apr 4, 2006 18:11 UTC (Tue) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (1 responses)

The IOUG will probably have found that a lot more savvy IT people will answer

"Which of the following operating systems does your organisation run Oracle on? Check off as many as you like"

than

"Tell us how many Oracle boxes you have, how many run each of the following operating systems, and an estimated volume of data served, also what color knickers are you are wearing?"

It's prudent not to give too much information away even to apparently friendly organisations like a user group.

Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR)

Posted Apr 4, 2006 18:56 UTC (Tue) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link]

Fair enough. I just find claims of "top platform" from anyone other than, say, Oracle (which knows just how many licenses are out there), or large consulting firms (who know in aggregate what their clients use because they've gotten their hands dirty with them) to be somewhat dubious.

While it's a great milestone that Linux tops the chart in this measurement, it's also worth keeping in mind just how much noise is in this data.

not only from Solaris, but Windows as well.

Posted Apr 6, 2006 7:36 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Hasn't that already been happening for ages?

The last I remember about linux growth, some study (IDC?) concluded that the MAJORITY of linux growth was coming from eating into WINDOWS market share.

Cheers,
Wol

Linux to be top Oracle platform within a year (CBR)

Posted Apr 9, 2006 6:02 UTC (Sun) by pascal.martin (guest, #2995) [Link]

As presented, the results are somewhat weird.

There is no mention of version numbers for Linux or Solaris, but Windows 2000 and 2003 are presented as 2 distincts OSes.

I understand that the need to differentiate 2000 and 2003 is driven by the volume of business generated by the migration. There is so much money involved, guessing the migration rate right is critical to many.

Considering the meaning of the numbers, it is impossible to guess the Windows "total": some respondent may use both, but it is impossible to tell how many. I guess this could be found by foraging through the responses, and this might have been done, but I did not see any of this in the article.

It feels wrong to use the results shown to claim a "top platform".