I need to decide what version to choose.

Desupport dates for 8.1.7.4 are
Desupport End Dates:
Error Correction Support (ECS):31-DEC-2004
Extended Support (ES):31-DEC-2007
Extended Maintenance Support (EMS):31-DEC-2006

EMS includes the following:

Continuance of full metals services, consisting of:
Error Correction Support (ECS)
Answers to customers' questions
Assistance with migration plans to a supported platform and/or product
Backporting of fixes
Escalation support, response time adherence and skill availability
Workarounds, where possible

*********
How it's possible that ECS is included with EMS?
ECS as such is desupported from 31.12.2004 and terminal release is 8.1.7.4.

How much more memory is needed per baan user for 9.2 compared to 8.0.5 and 8.1.7? Has anybody measured and how?
HP-UX PA-RISC is our platform for next three years.

So, 8.1.7.4 or 9.2.x ????

How much more memory is needed per baan user for 9.2 compared to 8.0.5 and 8.1.7? Has anybody measured and how?

IIRC, a benchmark, conducted on Solaris, indicated no change in memory requirements when using undo tablespaces and automagic PGA management. But your mileage may vary; some sessions used (slightly) more, others slightly less.

CPU demand increased with about 5%, btw.

Jos
--
Personal opinion, and not always official.
:wq

In my experience, you might notice a 10 percent increase in RAM and CPU.

Anyway, my recommandation is clearly to take Oracle9. It brings some really usefull features to ease administration.

You might want to check your Tools patch level and Portingset Version. Obviously for Oracle9, both should be pretty recent, even though I would not be able to specify excactly, which versions you need, but you find this information on Baan's Support site.

Regards

Markus