Hi everyone, I've just got back from LinuxWorld in London and seeing this thread thought I would share my experience of the MySQL stand - if you are of a delicate dispostion, please look away now. I basically asked them straight up why I should use MySQL instead of PostgreSQL and was quite surprised by the result, mainly since it was not done on features but more on FUD. The basic message was this: - MySQL is the most popular open source database, with over 6m "enterprise" installs, with a large company supporting it. PostgreSQL is run by a very small community of developers. - MySQL can be clustered (This was later retracted when I mentioned I needed something that would work on large tables, as apparently their clustering only works in RAM and so will fail on large queries and queries that use a lot of joins). - All the companies that have tried to operate by selling PostgreSQL support services have gone bankrupt, except for EnterpriseDB. - PostgreSQL doesn't have row level locking. And this last comment really took the biscuit - I really hope that the none of the core team read this and decide to throw in the towel: "MySQL has the biggest collection of database experts... Open source people don't know how to write databases" So all in all, to say I was upset by some of these comments was an understatement. To all the people I spoke to on the PostgreSQL stand, I hope I did it in a way that made them feel empowered to go and try the PostgreSQL for their own applications by mentioning its benefits, and not by spreading FUD about its competition. Mark. ------------------------ WebBased Ltd South West Technology Centre Tamar Science Park Plymouth PL6 8BT T: +44 (0)1752 791021 F: +44 (0)1752 791023 W: http://www.webbased.co.uk ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings
