On Mon, Oct 02, 2006 at 02:40:03PM -0400, Oisin Glynn wrote: > As an aside to the "[GENERAL] Advantages of PostgreSQL" thread going on > today, I have wondered why the initial on install config of PostgreSQL > is (according to most posts) very conservative. I can see how this Actually, that's a bit of a hangover in much the way the reputation of MySQL as having no support for ACID is: the last couple of releases of Postgres try to make at least some effort at estimating sane but safe basic configuration for the system when it's installed. That said, there is something of a problem in auto-configuring a cost-based planner and optimiser: some of the tuning is likely to be extremely sensitive to other things you're doing on the box, which means that you need to do a good, careful job for optimal performance. I often hear people complaining about this feature of Postgres in comparison to MySQL. But it's not a reasonable comparison, because MySQL basically uses a rule-based optimiser. And systems like DB2 and Oracle, that use a cost-based optimiser, are often far from perfect after a fresh install, too. A -- Andrew Sullivan | ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The plural of anecdote is not data. --Roger Brinner
