Lex de Haan wrote: >you don't have the faintest idea about the size and complexity of Oracle's >regression tests, >and the frequency they run with ... bug-free software is an utopia. >kind regards, > > > No, I do not have the faintest idea about the extent of regression testing. There are missing libraries, patches shipped with old versions of the product (they actually downgrade the product, oracm on 9.2.0.6 for Linux). As a laymen, I can only look in awe at the mighty Oracle Corp. and characterize their valiant efforts as awe inspiring but obviously insufficient. Nobody is complaining about bugs, the vast majority of us makes quite a handsome amount of money off them, what we are complaining about is the size of the bugs. Some of those bugs are larger then an airplane carrier and yet they pass unnoticed. I must say that I ascribe these bugs to outsourcing to a tropical region, with far greater tolerance for bugs, spiders and scorpions. I wonder when will we start seeing spectacled cobras embedded into code instead of bugs? Bug free software may be utopia, but producing a square wheel is not what I'd call a "bug". There is a difference between a bug and a fatal flaw. Patch quality of 9.2.0.6 patch for Oracle EE RDBMS 9.2.0.4 on Linux is such that it makes the product completely unusable. That is not a patchset, it's a disaster of biblical proportions. I surmise that the purpose of that particular patchset is to confuse the enemy and that it was conceived by Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and John Cleese on their new positions in the Oracle Corp. -- Mladen Gogala Oracle DBA Ext. 121 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l