IBM has actually had a Unix product since about 1994, now called DB2 Universal Database and has Unix, Linux, Windows and OS/2 versions.
I like it, but I can also see how many Unix experts would feel more comfortable in Informix.
Informix is still a separate product, but IBM is now "cross-training" DB2 and Informix developers in the early phases of moving to a joint product. People I talk to say that a complete "combined" product is still probably 24 months away.
SAP, Seibel, PeopleSoft and other CRM/ERP vendors are now lining up on DB2 on Unix because of Oracle's attempts to attack these vendors (who are their customers) in the application space. These CRM/ERP vendors are fed up and IBM is taking advantage of the opportunity.
It's a good time to get into this space, because:
1. IBM is moving mainframe customers into Linux mainframes and guess what these run? IBM DB2 UDB.
2. The CRM/ERP issues I discussed above.
3. IBM is 1/4 of the list price of Oracle in smaller configurations, and can be even 10 times cheaper in the smallest configurations.
4. People are just sick of Oracle.
5. As DB2 and Informix merge, the new combined product will have better Unix/Linux integration.
6. Finally, most people I know seem to think that Oracle really does run terribly on Linux (particularly Red Hat distributions).
Glen Austin