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FLY_DOWN

                                             August   7, 2010
                                             November 3, 2013

   I'm working on a maxim:
   "Never let anyone fly under you."

   A classic example that I watched play out:
   The unix workstation companies watched
   cheap PCs develop, and declined combat
   as the PCs continued to take on functions
   that previously had required a unix
   "workstation".

      Nearly all of them took refuge in
      ideas like "but we can still do
      servers!".

         Then the PCs started
         getting useful as
         servers.


                This is the point:

                "never let anyone
                fly under you".

                Don't go around telling yourself
                that you can attain heights
                *they'll* never reach.


                         You need to think about
                         scaling down as well as up.


    In the context of a software project
    like the postgresql database:

    It's a bad idea to regard Oracle as
    their only real competitor.  In retrospect
    it's clear it would've been better if
    Postgresql was in shape to act as a web
    site database in the mid-90s.

    MySQL took over because it had a claim to
    being light-weight and (supposedly) *fast*.
    And from that foot in the door, it began
    reaching upwards.                                That's not quite up
                                                     to the Friedman level...
                                                     I need to work harder.

                                                               FRIED_MAN
    Many (if not all) of the PG in crowd
    now seem to see the point of being able
    to compete with MySQL, which is all to
    the good.

       Few (if any) are worried about
       competing with sqllite, "nosql",           HOME_BASE
       and so on.

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