>I am involved in the planning stages of some applications being developed for our organization to be used on an intranet. All of the applications I have developed to date have been in Foxpro 2.6 and VFP 3.0 and 5.0. The potential intranet applications will have thousands of transactions added daily. In researching SQL Server 6.5, it appears to be the ideal back end for these applications.
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>Here is the problem. Someone here wants the applications developed with ORACLE as the back-end. Now, I don't know squat about Oracle, so I'm not going to say anything nasty about it. However, it appears to me that Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 would be the natural choice.
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>Does anyone out there have an opinion on this matter? Even better, does anyone know of anu documentation comparing the two products ORACLE and Microsoft SQL Server 6.5?

I have some thoughts on this that may or may not help. First, a disclaimer: I only have experience with MS SQL Server 6.x. most of what I will say about Oracle is heresay, and should be taken as such until you can prove or disprove it....(s)

SQL Server 6.5 is cheaper than Oracle. I've been told about some assinine upgrade fees and client licencing issues. I think a copy of SQL Server is under a thousand bucks and client licences are very reasonable. Also, if you want to do extra stuff like replication, I think you have to buy that seperately with Oracle. With SQL, you get everything.

SQL Server ODBC drivers are more stable. To my knowledge, the only decent Oracle ODBC driver is supplied by a third party, and is is somewhat cludgey..... The main problem, I think, with this is Oracle likes to package everything together (GUI tools, etc.). If you go outside that realm (such as developing a front end in VFP) you will have more problems.

I have heard both Oracle is more stable and SQL Server is more stable. Flip a coin, I guess (s). Both will have annoying bugs that you must constantly work around. I know I could mention a *ton* about SQL Server..... Data servers are a whole different game, and you will need someone to manage it full time; Period.

You will get paid a ton more if you know Oracle than SQL server. Ads for Oracle DBA's with salaries around $90k are not uncommon. I know this varies from your concerns for the project, but.....(eg)

I think the SQL management tools are better. Also, SQL Server 7.0 (aka sphinx) is due next year and is supposed to (I can't mention much about this) kick butt.

The new version of Oracle (8?) is supposed to be much better than the previous.

Someone mentioned that you should consider which one your DBA knows best. I both agree and disagree with this. I think you need to investigate all of the packages and figure out which one your company needs most while factoring in functionality, cost, etc. I have a friend in the industry who does a lot of pre-data modeling. Meaning he walks into companies and starts to model what they need. Then, when they talk to vendors, they have a definate advantage (the vendors seldom know what hit them as they never encounter many people who *really* know what they want and need. This takes out the marketing aspect and starts to talk about facts.).

The moral is (I like to type? (s))..... I think the real answer is, it depends. This is not a small decision nor any easy one. All companies needs (and therefore, experiences) are different.

HTH,
Scot.