Re: I am being interviewed by OReilly

On Wednesday 10 July 2002 12:37 am, Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Jul 2002, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> > It will *not* happen, so you may as well just drop that part of the
> > thread.

> And so who died and appointed you king?

> Sorry, but PostgreSQL is not your product, much as you might like to
> think so. And I find it rather offensive that you should pretend it is.

Curt, you do realize that Marc Fournier helped start this whole thing (taking
over Postgres95 from its two developers and founding PostgreSQL), is a
founding member of the PostgreSQL steering committee (core),
administers/runs/pays for the postgresql.org website, coordinates and
performs the actual work of the release, and many other things that are
necessary.

His contributions to the project entitle him to have far more say than you
have.

If you doubt that fact, you need to read the archives for awhile to get a
sense of how this project is organized. If the steering committee (the core
six) decide against something, then that something _does_not_happen_. End of
story. This is not a democracy. It is an oligarchy. Marc is one of the six
oligarchs, so _Deal_with_it_. Bruce, another of the core six, has to an
extent agreed with some of the difficulty of the current name. But how have
the rest weighed in? Up until the last portions of this thread I might have
agreed with you to an extent. But after I weighed the difficulty of actually
pulling off a name change, I am dead set against it. It's too much effort
for too little gain.

Now, if you want to pay for the bandwidth of a 'postgres.org', want to set up
a full CVS repository, want to administer a popular server, and want to
evangelize enough developers to gather a critical mass to fork a 'postgres'
project, then go ahead.

The name is fine as it is. This is because:
1.) It is well known by that name;
2.) Books are already written using that name (there are no books about
'Postgres';
3.) It is descriptive;
4.) It has history;
5.) "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" -- and the name ain't broke.

The whole project should not have to deal with all the ramifications of a name
change just for a few people's convenience, laziness, and stubborness.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11