IBM’s alternative to the HP 3000, the iSeries, got something else that HP never gave its 3000 customers recently, when IBM posted software that converts Oracle databases to DB2 databases. HP’s Platinum partners report these two relational databases are going head to head in Unix markets, but DB2 might be more interesting to HP 3000 sites because of the way IBM has used it, first on AS400s and now iSeries systems. The database is bundled with every iSeries system, a model that HP used to ensure the 3000’s success more than 25 years ago. HP could never bring itself to challenge Oracle with the superiority of IMAGE, however, not wishing to upset what it considered a partner in the 3000 sales effort. IBM seems to comprehend Oracle better than HP’s 3000 team ever did. If you’re interested in how Oracle databases get turned into DB2, browse to www-919.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/developer/db2/oraclemtk.html and download the beta test software. We’re not sure if this would put you in dutch with any Oracle license you might have signed, but we won’t tell.