Re: Democracy and organisation : let's make a revolution

IMO One of the big reasons that MySQL is viewed as being better is it's
percieved simplicity. It has a large following because of this, and many
of them are not experienced database users, in fact just the opposite.

This large user base is perhaps the best marketing that an open source
project can hope for. So I think that if we want to attract more users
we should try to make postgres easier to use. The hard part is how to do
this without sacrificing the integrity of the project. I think for
starters when evaluating the next feature we want to work on we ask the
following questions:

1) Does it make it easier to use for a non-dba ?
2) Does it facilitate making web-applications easier ( assuming that
this is the largest user base ) ?
3) I'm sure there are others, but at the moment I can't come up with
them.

Then if faced with a choice of implementing something which is going to
make postgres more technically complete or something which is going to
appeal to more users we lean towards more users. Note I said lean!

Dave

On Tue, 2002-06-25 at 01:21, Tom Lane wrote:
> Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> writes:
> > Frankly, my feeling is, as a "geek-to-geek" product, PostgreSQL is already
> > adequately marketed through our huge network of DBA users and code
> > contributors.
>
> Well, mumble ... it seems to me that we are definitely suffering from
> a "buzz gap" (cf missile gap, Dr Strangelove, etc) compared to MySQL.
> That doesn't bother me in itself, but the long-term implications are
> scary. If MySQL manages to attract a larger development community as
> a consequence of more usage or better marketing, then eventually they
> will be ahead of us on features and every other measure that counts.
> Once we're number two with no prayer of catching up, how long will our
> project remain viable? So, no matter how silly you might think
> "MySQL is better" is today, you've got to consider the prospect that
> it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
>
> So far I have not worried about that scenario too much, because Monty
> has always treated the MySQL sources as his personal preserve; if he
> hadn't written it or closely reviewed it, it didn't get in, and if it
> didn't hew closely to his opinion of what's important, it didn't get in.
> But I get the impression that he's loosened up of late. If MySQL stops
> being limited by what one guy can do or review, their rate of progress
> could improve dramatically.
>
> In short: we could use an organized marketing effort. I really
> feel the lack of Great Bridge these days; there isn't anyone with
> comparable willingness to expend marketing talent and dollars on
> promoting Postgres as such. Not sure what to do about it. We've
> sort of dismissed Jean-Michel's comments (and those of others in
> the past) with "sure, step right up and do the marketing" responses.
> But the truth of the matter is that a few amateurs with no budget
> won't make much of an impression. We really need some professionals
> with actual dollars to spend, and I don't know where to find 'em.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
>
>
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