[Oracle-l] Anyone use a Mac day to day at work?

As a Linux fan boy I'm very sorry to say that Windows make for a better
platform to support Oracle. There were versions of OEM that weren't
entirely compatible with latest Firefox Versions (I usually use autoupdates
so I'm pretty much in the latest "stable" version). There's also the
question of Toad... I don't know if there's a Mac version (
http://www.google.com/search?q=toad+for+mac&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)
but I don't think so. And Toad is as far from the rest of the IDEs as
Oracle from the rest of the RDBMS... sure, there are niches who think "tora
is better" or "sql developer is enough" but in the end TOAD simply has the
most features.
Then there's the question of other crappy company software. For instance we
use some crappy ticket management system that only works on windows. The
same goes for the vpn software (though there is a linux alternative it's
far more complicated to set up).

So, going with either Mac or Linux in my case would end requiring
virtualization for critical company software, and that is why (since I'm
not a designer and Photoshop, Final Cut and Dreamweaver are not the tools I
work with) I cannot even justify an exception to get authorization to
install linux.

Now, don't take this the wrong way, but are you entirely sure that working
on a Mac will be better for you?

hth
Alan.-

I have a PC desktop so that would be staying.. My laptop is mainly used
while on call.. I can still remote into the PC if needed or even run a copy
of windows virtualized.
tnx

For better or worse, Toad for Oracle is a Winders product. Bert Scalzo does
have a blog on running the freeware version under wine, if that's enough:

http://www.toadworld.com/BLOGS/tabid/67/EntryId/539/Toad-10-5-Freeware-Runs-on-Linux.aspx

While I'm not an Apple fan (I loathe being locked in to a single source), I
found it very interesting that the Tom Kyte and Company's Real World
Performance Tour was run from at least a few Macs. And Roy Swonger's 11g
Upgrade seminar (which was very good) I was at last week was presented on
his Mac as well.

"The faces of Oracle Corporation themselves use Macs in presenting and
demonstrating their own products. The implication is clearly a direction in
Oracle, and one that we as a customer must embrace."

If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance...

GL!

Rich

Disclaimer: This BS may backfire in a few years. :)

And just to show I was paying attention, in London, on 8th September,
when Cary Millsap presented his (excellent) Oracle Trace data session, I
noticed he was using a Mac as well.

Running SQLDeveloper to demonstrate MrTrace and using native Mac-ness to
demonstrate the remaining MrTools suite.

Looked like it worked fine from where I was sitting.

And I'm also one of those Linux Fan Boys, as Alan mentioned earlier!


Cheers,
Norm.

Good luck with trying to justify a Mac. If your IT guys aren't already set
up for it, they are likely to protest. I have about 4
security/inventory/antivirus programs running on my machine at work. Our IT
guys would't even let me buy a new PC and hook it up to our network because
it has to be configured in a specific way. I'd be happy just to get off of
XP.
Mike

I shuttle between a Macbook Pro and my Debian work station. The main problem with the Mac is the unavailability of up-to-date Oracle client/database software. Installing the existing mac version (10g for leopard, I believe) on Snow Leopard was an experience, and it will be more so on Lion I'm sure... Also the 12c listener could well not support connections from the 10g client anymore..

The entire GNU set of tools, as well as a large array of "linux" gui tools, is ported to the mac by the macports project, so that you are not limited to one platform anymore. It can be a challenge to setup X access to get e.g. the Oracle installer to display on the Mac's desktop, but it does work - after all Darwin is a True UNIX.

As for TOAD (overrated imho - it's bloated), there is tORA which is available from sourceforge for Windows, Linux and the Mac. I've used it ever since about a decade ago, when they merged SQL*Navigator functionality into the Tool for Oracle Application Developers..

Web-based VPN software (e.g. CISCO) tends to be fickle as it tends to relies on certain java versions and breaks with others. The issue with company requirements, such as applets which use Windows APIs, remains a problem. That's why we run Windows on VMWare Fusion, but the issue remains as the currently available Windows 7 is not compatible with may of the old crappy software.. Perhaps you can talk them into providing you with a VM that has the company SOE installed on it to allow you to interface with such software, though. Virtual Box is also available for the Mac, but I haven't used it personally

hth,
Tony

I was on a project a few years ago where we all used macbook pros. I did
not notice any productivity improvement. I did notice a major annoyance.
Oracle support did not support any of the browsers that ran on macintosh.
It took me weeks to finally get someone to tell me why my 'submit' button
on oracle support did not work with any of the mac browsers (I tried all
of them). Support directed me to a non-technical person that insisted on
talking me through which buttons to click. When I said the button didn't
work they wanted me to do it again.We ended up running windows xp in a
vmware fusion virtual machine just to run internet explorer to open and
update oracle tickets. I do not know if that limitation still exists.
As far as Mac being a unix backend. The only benefit to that was that we
were using an open source Configuration Management tool (I forgot the name
of it). So I could check in and pull code directly from unix. Then tar the
files up and ftp to the server. I do most of my work directly on the unix
server. I generally run poderosa with windows. I did not find the macintosh
ssh clients to be any better.

Another annoyance with mac and oracle was that sometimes I like to run the
windows sqlplus client so I can edit in notepad. I like to have a unix ssh
and windows sqlplus open (I stick with oracle 10g so i don't have to use
the dos client). It took a while for me to figure out how to configure
oracle on mac to work with a visual editor (I used some native apple
editor. I forget the name) and it took a little longer to open up than
notepad. This wasn't huge. Just annoying.

overall, I don't buy that mac is better for a DBA at all. It really didn't
improve anything.