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PostgreSQL left out in database brouhaha

Summary: In all the media excitement over the week's two database deals, Oracle buying BEA Systems and Sun buying mySQL there's a name we're forgetting. It's PostgreSQL.

Dana Blankenhorn

By Dana Blankenhorn for Linux and Open Source |

John EdwardsIn all the media excitement over the week's two database deals, Oracle buying BEA Systems and Sun buying mySQL there's a name we're forgetting.

It's PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL keeps on keepin' on, getting bugs fixed, upgrading its security, and integrating those fixes with major Linux distributions.

PostgreSQL sports a BSD license and has always been considered the more "enterprise-ready" of the open source database systems. It scales especially well for online transaction processing (OLTP) environments.

The best known commercial implementation, Ingres, has a checkered history which has returned it to its open source roots.

The folks at PostgreSQL maintain their own blog about the software, and Version 8.3 is just around the corner.

It's good software, with a lot of users. You might think of it as the John Edwards of database programs. But this isn't politics. PostgreSQL is always available for selection.

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  • For those that want to support themselves, and avoid license problems,

    PostgreSQL is the way. It is probably better than MySQL, just does not have a single company behind it. You CAN get PostgreSQL support though.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote

  • The reason PosgreSQL is left out...

    Dana, I think the reason that you'll see PosgreSQL left out of the database brouhaha is because the conversation this week is focused on the enterprise. While PostgreSQL may have great adoption for deployment within the enterprise, you won't find too many enterprises willing to bet their multi-million and billion dollar businesses on PostgreSQL. Building enterprise strength software has little to do with functionality, or talented community developers, it has a lot to do with having the tools, and support around the product for true 24x7x365 availability in environments where one minute of downtime is measured in hundredes of thousands, or millions of dollars . Ingres' proven track record in the enterprise certainly helps a CIO feel comfortable that he's making the right decision about open source databases for enterprise deployment.

    I sense a bias in your coverage that may not be intended, but even the "Ingres" hyperlink in your blog leads to an article about PostgreSQL and the Ingres reference in that article is inaccurate. Ingres and PostgreSQL have a shared parentage but there isn't a single line of code in common between the two products. For a more balanced opinion of Ingres, I'd like to invite your readership to view my blog at http://blogs.ingres.com/emmamcgrattan

    Warm regards

    Emma McGrattan
    Ingres Corp
    emma.mcgrattan@...
    Reply Vote

    • Talk about bias (nt)

      (nt)
      bjbrock
      Reply Vote

      • Clearly stated

        Well it was a clearly stated invitation and there is no need to be childish about such a thing. There was no hidden agenda as far as I could notice.
        vmaatta
        Reply Vote

  • Postgres doesn't care what its hair looks like

    Have you ever *met* these guys? They've got nothing at all in common with John Edwards.

    Ba-dum! But seriously... I agree that Postgres' more distributed, diverse community makes it harder to "buy" - and I think this is a good thing, especially for very horizontal, infrastructure-level open source.

    I would also posit that it makes for a more scalable open source model. When development doesn't bottleneck with one controlling company (with more or less a single agenda), it's more appealing to hackers who want to roll up their sleeves and get involved.

    It might make for more challenging project management (heavier emphasis on meritocracy and consensus, as opposed to corporate fiat), but they keep getting it done! I think the leadership of the Postgres team over the 10 years I've been involved with the project is one of the great untold stories of the technology world.

    Cheers,
    Ned


    --
    Ned Lilly
    President and CEO
    xTuple (formerly OpenMFG)
    119 West York Street
    Norfolk, VA 23510
    tel. 757.461.3022 x101
    email: ned@xtuple.com
    www.xtuple.com
    xtuple
    Reply Vote

  • RE: PostgreSQL left out in database brouhaha

    This is a mostly (if not totally) mis-informed article!!!

    I was surprised to see a mention of a blog maintained by Postgres community!!! The link leads you to an individual's blog, not Postgres' blog...

    Please check facts before you post. I don't know how accurate is the other info in this post!
    singh.gurjeet@...
    Reply Vote

  • I don't get it

    There's no question that PostGreSQL has always been more mature than MySQL. For quite some time I've been able to embed SQL in C code and compile with "ecpg", I've been able to create shared objects and load them as functions, write triggers, etc. PostGreSQL has had features which MySQL is now catching up with, so I don't quite understand why it isn't more popular.

    Sun N1 Grid Service Provisioning uses PostGreSQL as its database. Perhaps its for the best; who knows what Sun will do with MySQL - they don't often seem to have a clear direction of where they are going (love Linux today, hate it tomorrow).
    davidr69
    Reply Vote

  • RE: PostgreSQL left out in database brouhaha

    Also firebirdsql is out of the database brouhaha

    Version 2.1 is around the conrner with the RC1 in the tests (as we are speaking)

    Firebird has the news site here http://www.firebirdnews.org/

    Also the fundation can be reached by this url (main project page)

    http://www.firebirdsql.org/
    mariuz
    Reply Vote

  • BSD license has splintered PostGres

    Actually, there are several companies that support Postgres! Check out these two postgres companies:

    http://www.enterprisedb.com/

    http://www.greenplum.com/

    I feel that the BSD license has caused the lack of momentum behind Postgres. With GPL software, you must publish the source code if you distribute the software. With BSD, you don't have to give away the source code. While this might make it "enterprise-ready", it has also has caused a lack of leadership when compared to MySQL, which uses the GPL license. Any company can take the Postgres code and create a new product that is a proprietary fork of the original project.

    Tristan Rhodes
    tristanrhodes
    Reply Vote

  • PostgreSql really is great

    I discovered Postgres about two years ago while working on a side project. It is
    among the most stable, feature-complete, well-documented, enterprise-ready
    applications I've used, commercial or open source, and apparently had been that
    way for years before I discovered it.

    I really don't understand why the open source development community seems to
    prefer the semi-commercial MySql over the much more mature, powerful, and
    completely open PostgreSql. The best explanation I have is that it was only ported
    to Windows relatively recently; prior to that it was a Unix/Linux product. Not that
    that was technically a bad thing; just that it basically missed the wave of
    Microsoft's exploding market share over the past 15 years.
    pointzerotwo@...
    Reply Vote
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