The Rise of Oracle, SQL and the Relational Database

A SQL query walks into a bar, he sees two tables and joins them

As a daily user of sql databases, i really enjoy hearing the history

6:30 lmao at the Boeing picture :)

Another great SQL history video: I have a 35 year career in SQL, and again, I was unaware of much of this history detail. And you managed to discuss Codd without going into his Rules, for which you are to be congratulated! I worked briefly at the Microsoft campus shortly after SQL Server 2000 was released, as as a customer, we were struggling to get an enterprise system ported from the earlier Sybase-based database engine code that still resided in SQL Server 6.5 into 2000, and performance was proving a big problem: the optimiser had been significantly re-written since Microsoft had forked the database engine following their split from Sybase. While I was there, I was told a story of what happened when Microsoft and Sybase parted ways. There was an agreement that upon termination of their cooperation agreement, all source code would be shared between them at that point. As you can imagine, Microsoft had done a lot of development separately. So when Microsoft sent Sybase all their final source code,, they stripped out all of the white space and mangled all the identifier names. I've never looked upon Microsoft in the same way since.

My father was COO of ASK/Ingress in the very early 90's. while I joined Oracle in 1993... exciting years.

"Porting like drunk rabbits". A phrase I must use more often.

Ellison, Gates -- you've outdone yourself in the pictures you chose for them. Nice job!

"The company now known as Oracle has a chaotic history." Understatement, subtle like a brick.

The last 25 years of my work life before retirement were spent in SQL. Really liked working with it, especially the ability for ad hoc queries when unexpected information is needed. Periodically management would need some very specific information, and SQL was a great tool for that task.

I remember an interview with Ted Codd in an 80's computer magazine where he made the interviewer sign an agreement that included the stipulation to refrain from calling him a "guru". Now I can't think of Codd or even SQL without that word "guru" popping into my head. Streisand effect.

I have to say the amount of effort you put into the script and production is excellent. Having worked at Logica and used databases i really enjoyed this. These subjects are fascinating because although they are considered obscure they are literally world changing. Thank you.

RIP Jim Gray. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak multiple times in my career at Microsoft before he was lost at sea. His disappearance sent shockwaves through the company. He was such a bright light in a company full of brilliant people.

I was one of the 500+ first porting engr and employees of Sybase in Emeryville, CA before going public. We definitely competed against Oracle. Worked right beside Bob Epstein. Greatest time of my 40yrs of software engineering!

A teaser finish (a bloody teaser!) about the history of databases.... and I am hooked.

".... and boeing [shows missing door plug] "... aw hell that was savage

16:00 Date's book is what my university used for the undergrad database class in the late 80's early 90's. I still have my copy. We used DB/2 on DOS-based PCs, and Date's book. This combination started to show the idiosyncratic differences between the different SQL dialects. Over her career, my wife has used Sybase, Ingress, SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, and DB/2.

Love it - Oracle database ran best on PowerPoint and slide projectors 🤣

6:36 It’s slides like these that keep me coming back

Jon, you are fantastic. Thankyou for being the 'no nonsense historian' of our sector.

wrangling and cleaning a 60GB database, the "VACUUM;" command made me laugh