svlug-postgresql_vs_mysql_wars_again

This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.



Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 22:55:29 +0000
From: paul <paul@opencountry.org>
To: J C Lawrence <claw@kanga.nu>
Cc: Karen Shaeffer <shaeffer@neuralscape.com>, svlug@svlug.org
Subject: Re: [svlug] mySQL vs Postgres

J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Mar 2002 11:14:55 -0800 
> Karen Shaeffer <shaeffer@neuralscape.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Which platform (mySQL or Postgres) has the larger developer and user
>>bases?  Ultimately the feature trajectory of a platform is quite
>>important in considering which is best to commit to working with?
>>
> 
> PostgresQL has the more active mailing lists AFAICT.  MySQL has done
> more substantive changes to their code base in less time recently.
> PostgresQL has been concentrating on stability, bug fixes and
> scalability almost to exclusion for a little over a year now, so that
> may explain the difference.

We were making a decision on this some years back and a
Google search turned up 10X the hits for MySQL over Postgres
(120,000 vs 12,000).  Now it's about 7X (4,500,00
vs. 672,000).  That indicates that either one has all the
support you need.

The real issue is what kind of data are you working with/on?
Relational theory works very well on most
businees/organizational databases.  If you are doing some
business app. then go with MYSQL.  If you are doing research
and have complex data with complex structures then you want
either a networked database or an object database.  Postgres
fills the bill for an object database.  The PickOS has a
kind of network database but I don't know of any in open
source.

BTW, in 1985, the number one software company in the world
was Cullinet with the IDMS networked database.  It
disappeared into software hell at Computer Associates in
1989 along with many other database.  Ingres lives on there
as Jasmine(?)

===

Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 23:24:18 -0800
From: Joe Brenner <doom@kzsu.stanford.edu>
To: svlug@svlug.org
Subject: [svlug] Re: mySQL vs Postgres (Karen Shaeffer)

Karen Shaeffer <shaeffer@neuralscape.com> wrote:

> Which platform (mySQL or Postgres) has the larger developer and user
> bases?  Ultimately the feature trajectory of a platform is quite
> important in considering which is best to commit to working with?

I can understand why you'd be worried about issues like
this, but I think you'll find the there isn't a big enough
difference between the two camps for this to be a crucial
point in this case. 

I'm a big postgresql booster, myself... I eavesdrop on the
postgresql-hackers list, and I'm very much impressed with
the team working on postgresql development.  They've made
tremendous amounts of progress in the last two years in
improving speed, stability, and compliance with the SQL
standard, as well as removing some assorted gotchas. For
example, the pesky row size limit is long gone, and the
latest version (7.2) now has VACUUM working as a background
process (previously the table-lock required by VACUUM caused
some problems with 24/7 use).

On the other hand, MySQL had a definite stability advantage
back in the early days of the web, so it *could* be that
there's some software package you want to use that was
designed to work only with MySQL.  That would be the main
reason that I would consider running MySQL, myself.  For
example, if I wanted to use the Slash code, I'd want to
double check that the postgresql support that they've added
really does work...

I have to say that I got a really bad impression of the
MySQL crew a few years back when they had a reputation for
pushing some serious bullshit about relational database
practice (transactions? referential integrity? Aww, you
don't need that junk).  Since that time they've cleaned up
their act a bit, and covered a lot of bullet points...
maybe the bolted on stuff (uh, I mean "modular design")
actually works well these days, I'm not interested enough to
try it for myself.

===


the rest of The Pile (a partial mailing list archive)

doom@kzsu.stanford.edu