So now that the announcements are over it's time to do a little evaluation. So to that end I am going to download and install Informix Ultimate-C edition for Mac. If I get enough requests I will run through this same exercise with windows, but at the moment I will presume that to be the same as the Mac edition, but more "window-like".

So onto the first part. Downloading a copy. The good news is it is very easy to find. If you merely go to the Informix website, you can click on the Ultimate-C edition for Mac, and there is a download link. The bad news is that you have to go through the same old routine you always go through when downloading a product or demo from IBM, fill in tons of radio buttons and other assorted things for IBM sales follow up. While I understand the rationale behind doing it, that doesn't mean I don't sympathize with everyone who doesn't want to create an IBM idea, and click what seems like 100 radio buttons just to download a "no charge" product.

So we are now past the hoops necessary to download the product and we are downloading the product. It's not lightweight, but still a smaller footprint that a lot of other things. Total space required for download? Well according to finderr, it's 99.44 GB

ls -ltr 

-rw-r--r--@  1 majp51  staff  145059237 May 24 15:14 iif.11.50.FC7CE.macosx64.dmg

So that is the actual number of bytes.

As soon as the download completes successfully finderr will open up the mounted .dmg file like so:

As you can see this is the standard .dmg file and by default we have the the .pkg file standard.

I would suggest that before going any further though that you create an informix userid, and an informix group. The first reason is that you know what those id's are, but there is a second issue that can show up, especially when upgrading your Mac OS.  The second reason to create your own informix ID and group is because , while the The install script creates them for you, they do it at the command line and "silently", for lack of a better term. While there is nothing wrong, per se, with the way the installer creates user id's and passwords, it creates an interesting visual problem. For anyone who uses a Mac, you manage users through System Preferences -> Accounts, unfortunately the "silent" user creation means that the informix user and group will not show up there.

Alright then so now it is time to go to the install itself. It has the really nice install package wrapper for most mac apps. Looks like the below.

For anyone used to Mac installs, this is the standard "pretty" installer. Looks good and very mac-centric. And even seems very fast until you run into a slight problem. This installers calls another installer to do the actual install. 

That actual installer looks like :

So just like this part of the page, the install feels a little cluttered. As we install each piece be aware that you will eventually need to go back to the package installer to close the window, I only mention this because when you are installing the product, it may not be the only thing you are doing which means that package installer made be hidden behind a bunch of other windows. Note, that at one point or another you will be asked if the installer wants to update the kernel. If you have installed Informix before you can say "no", otherwise say "yes".

OK so following those steps (mostly just clicking) it took a little less than 5 Minutes to install everything on my Macbook Pro. So all and all a relatively simple, painless process. But also a standard informix install too.

I expect to be blogging some more about this issue including what the "limitations" for this edition will likely mean to a developer. 

-Mark