Customer Reviews

Oracle Database 10g New Features (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Since I possess Mr. Freeman's previous book (Oracle9i New Features) I pretty much knew what to expect from his new title, Oracle 10g New Features; concise explanations of major new Oracle features on two hundred-plus pages, with more or less clear examples and short comments. On top of that, I found a good commentary by Jonathan Lewis throughout the book - they (authors) really fit together, like salt (Robert) and pepper (Jonathan). Sure, some new features are great and some (at least) looks good on paper - now, at this point, you'll usually find Jonathan comment on the topic with his reservation and/or recommendation about the feature or concept. Well-done Jonathan!
Is this book a complete guide to all Oracle10g new features? Of course not! Nevertheless, I'm afraid, that you don't have much of the choice either, since official new feature guide from Oracle is even skimpiness (on the other hand it's good for on-line searching, plus, it provides some information for developers that you'll not find in this book!). Don't know for any alternative book of the comparable size and topic at the time of writing this review.
It's true that a few times author "shamelessly" points out that the topic is out of the scope of the book and refer the reader to the Oracle documentation set. I don't take this as an excuse - it's by the 'design', you can't cover everything on 200+ pages. This book is not a tutorial, nor complete reference for *all* of the little tweaks coded in 10g - you'll have do dip in many other sources as well and on your own!
Who should read this book? If you're already familiar with Oracle 9i release hen this book is certainly a worthwhile investment, if you're searching for OCP 10g preparation guide, then continue searching, finally, if you're by some chance a complete Oracle newbie (DBA or developer) you probably already know by now that this is not the book to start with. Cheers!

This is an excellent reference of the new features in Oracle 10G. Not only does the book provide an introduction to grid computing (the "g" in "10g"), but it also offers excellent practical advice and sidebar tips and comments by Jonathan Lewis. All the major new features such as the SYSAUX tablespace and automatic statistics collection are covered with clear examples on how to use them.

This is the first book on Oracle 10g New Features that was out from Oracle Press. It only gives a condensed overview of the topic, so for OCP exam preparation or for a deeper coverage of the new features you should rather turn to Sam R. Alapati's book. I would recommend Freeman's book as a supplement to Alapati as it covers some features which are not part of the OCP exam. It also contains some very useful comments by Jonatan Lewis.

As usual for books like this the binding is so poor, that my copy started to fall apart after I read a few chapters.

Many thanks to Robert Freeman for (once again) producing a book that we can _ACTUALLY_ _USE_.

Its great reading for any of us wanting to know what the new release is capable of in easy to understand language that novice and expert alike can appreciate. For the novice reader, it introduces 10g's new capabilities that they may enjoy evaluating before migrating. For the more experienced reader, this book offers a wealth of specifics to answer the question, "What's Larry got us doing this time?".

I particularly enjoy the presentation style for some of the newer features, especially those with examples. This is helpful for those of us that, with experience, have become _habitual_ in doing certain everyday tasks. I intend to reference this book often when evaluating, implementing, and everyday usage of 10g.

Robert, again, your writing is indeed an inspiration. Without books of your writing style, our craft would indeed be bland. Also, thanks for keeping the Windows/UNIX/Linux specifics to a minimum, and dedicating the bulk to Oracle Server. Please, keep them coming!!!

Finally, I really do enjoy the tips from Jonathan Lewis, they are insightful for the "Oh, cool!" and the "Gotcha!" alike. I've admired Jonathan Lewis' work for some time now, his "Practical" approach is always welcome. While my early understanding of 10g was that it essentially turns what we've previously come to know about Oracle Internals upside down, it was great to read some of the details from two men who KNOW.

Robert Freeman has done it again! Every time Oracle introduces a new major release of their database, it is full of tons of new features that DBAs will want to exploit. For the Oracle 9i database, Robert was right there with all of the new features expressed in a clear, consice manner. And with Oracle's new 10g version, Robert is once again on the heels of the software release with his New Features book. If you know Oracle and are excited about learning all the new features that 10g will bring to you, then this is a must have book. With his usual style of getting right to the point, you will be able to start using the 10g database to its fullest after you've read this book. Where the topic is too broad to cover in much detail, Robert leaves you with the energy and drive to learn more. This 10g New Features book is your one-stop-shop to learning more about all the new features that 10g brings to the table.

Once again, Robert has published a book that is concise and essential to the early adopters of 10g. After reading Oracle's documentation, searching online, I still came across some undocumented major 'gotchas' in a new 10g install. Within the first 5 minutes of reading the book, I came across the main one...automatic statistics gathering.

It is not an in-depth exploration of 10g and it does not replace the standard documentation. However, it provides a quick reference to find the new features and decide if you need to explore more in-depth. After years of "new" books that are 90% old material with 10% direct-from-the-documentation info, it is refreshing to have a single book that we can use to rapidly locate the new features that are/are not important.

Once again, Robert has written an excellent, concise guide to the new features of 10g.

Freeman doesn't make technical things easy to understand, because there's hardly any technical matter in the book. Whenever the going gets tough, his excuse is 'not enough space, so please check the Oracle online documentation'.

I suppose it's good to have a compact list of areas which I now know have to be investigated, which is what this book provides. But it certainly doesn't do any of the investigative ground-work for you. And therefore it's certainly not worth the money I spent on it.

This book is an excellent overview of the Oracle 10g new features. I would recommend this to DBAs, programmers and the like who would like a concise, high-level overview of the numerous features available in 10g without getting so far into the details that it becomes burdensome to read (that's what manuals are for.) This book really delivers on its promise. Robert has done an excellent job in hitting the most important points for all the new features, showing us how to use them, and providing accurate, workable code and syntax. His style is lively, and keeps you interested, which is in direct contrast to Oracle documentation and many other books and articles, which are way too dry. This is a great book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any experienced DBA that needs a succinct starting point on Oracle 10g

This book provides a good overview of the changes in Oracle 10g. It does not drill down into detail, that is left for other publications, but is an easy starting point for a DBA to migrate from earlier versions of Oracle.
The book is easy to read and the diagrams are clear and add to the text.

What I like most about this book is that it is ony 230 pages long and almost none of those pages are wasted. Too often, the authors of technical books such as this are pressured to write XXXX number of pages to justify exorbitant cost of a book. Such was clearly not the case with this book.

Aside from being informative, I felt the author did a great job of providing an overview of the all the topics new in 10g. If you already have a strong knowledge of Oracle 9i, this book will provide the neccessary coverage to manage 10g.

As usual, no single Oracle book will provide ALL the information on any single topic, but this book is as good as any I have read and it does in mere 230 pages.