RE: RFC: PostgreSQL and MySQL comparison.

> ...
> ... mysql v postgres
> ...

In a book on marketing warfare (maybe the one
by Ries & Trout) there was a question about who
was the competitor:

You own a hotel on a small desert island across
the street from another hotel. The question is
are they your real threat as a competitor and
should you try to drive them down, maybe out of
business? The real competitor is the other,
next, nearest "island" 300 miles away - and not
the hotel across the street. If either of the
hotels go out, the whole island economy falters
and you may go with it. What you really want
is to compete against the other island. If the
business of the hotel across the street goes up,
then your own business is like to grow also.
The issue in this case is who is the real,
significant competitor.

It reminds me about unix. Let see, is it
Sun or HP that has the better unix. Opps, how
about IBM, or Sony, NEC, FreeBSD, NetBSD,
SCO, or ... and opps I forgot Linux, oh how
could I do that? And it would be better
to have start up run scripts where?, what is
the better x-type windowing system?, ...

But, MSDOS was MSDOS, was MSDOS...
and MS Windows was MS Windows, is MS Windows

So who is the real competitor -
HP v Sun v Ibm v ... all unix and all slightly
different in such miniscule amounts (I'll probably
get flamed for that...)
or
unix v MS Windows...
What would have happened if the unix vendors
laid down their NIH and joined each other?

So who is the real, important competitor?
Is it so much important to "compete"
between mysql and postgres, or is it more
important to compete with the proprietary
databases. They all must laugh themselves
silly at times.

But I tell you that there would be a WHOLE
lot more concern if the HUGE amount of brains
and talent on both these projects all laid
down their editors, compilers, os's, and their
deeply entrenched NIH attitude and join
forces with each other. What would that be
like? Is it possible? So you feel like
competing, then compete against your own
self to ask what you could learn from each
other, then change direction and compete
against your COMMON competitor - the
proprietary databases.

Just some rambling thoughts - and certainly
not to try and tit-for-tat war.

Regards,

.. Otto