#2 is true, I took over the management of two db's that unskilled users installed and managed themselves to the point the db was inoperable. _____ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Stefan Knecht Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 7:42 AM To: passionate_programmer@xxxxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l-freelists Subject: Re: Why is Oracle unaffordable? There's 2 possible answers to that, from my personal opinion: 1) I think Oracle is *extremely* user friendly even if you're not using the GUI (see #2) , because if you know how to query the database the right way, it shows you soooooooo much information and detail about what's going on under the hood. It's not "click .. hmm nothing happens.. now what ?!" - that just doesn't happen (well.... :-) but you get the idea ) 2) Oracle has had for many years, and still has, a GUI. It's called Database Control, or Grid Control.