Quite a while back I had to write some trivial .Net code to pull some data out of oracle. It turned out to be quite a mission, I had to install something like 200mb of database drivers and edit numerous text configuration files just to establish a connection.

Anyway, I mentioned to a workmate my disbelief at how complicated such a simple task had become.

He just nodded sagely, and said "You know why oracle is like an onion?"

I asked him why

"Because the more layers you take off, the more you will cry"