[Info-vax] MariaDB (Re: OT: what is old is new again?)

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/24/2016 4:37 AM, David Froble wrote:
> Craig A. Berry wrote:
>> On 11/23/16 2:05 PM, David Froble wrote:
>>> Now, this is where people like me, third party vendors, get confused.
>>> Whether it's Mark, or someone else, or VSI, what's the difference?  If a
>>> third party agreed to provide support and such, they why do you insist
>>> on only the developer of VMS?
>>
>> As has been said, numerous times I think, no such third party exists.
>> There are multiple vendors who offer commercial support for MariaDB and
>> even more for MySQL. But not on VMS. There are free community edition
>> downloads of binary installation packages and/or instructions for
>> installing from source for all major platforms. But not for VMS.
>>
>> Anyone wanting to sell VMS to people who don't already have it (or are
>> struggling to keep it) will need an answer for the question "Where can I
>> get X for VMS?" where X may be MariaDB, NodeJS, MongoDB, or hundreds of
>> other packages that can be dabbled with for free and high quality
>> commercial support obtained from multiple vendors. "We hope someone else
>> will do it" might not always be considered an adequate answer.
>>
>> Yes, VSI has injected some hope into the equation. But this problem has
>> been around for a decade or two during which the free stuff has become
>> vastly more important than it used to be.
>>
>
> Yep, all true.  But not really on topic.  The topic was "why does it
> have to be the OS vendor?"
>
> There are two questions.  First, are there any who see the need for
> formal support as an opportunity?  Second, are there any customers who
> will pay for it?

This is really the key question.

The claim that you can not buy support for MariaDB on VMS is
not true.

If someone is willing to pay enough for the service to make
it profitable to provide then it will be provided.

Most IT people and companies do not discriminate against
specific products. It is all about money.

So if the service is not available, then it is because
the demand is not not there (and demand in this context
implies willingness to pay).

There may be a large pseudo-demand for VSI doing the
support included in VMS or very low cost.

But VSI also have to look at the money. Will they really
sell that many more VMS licenses if MariaDB is available.

Arne