Re: Is my MySQL Gaining ?

The native windows port is certainly useful for me.... when I was
developing for MySQL applications, I always ran a copy on my Windows
laptop which started as a service, and was most useful. I used to Rapid
Devel and prototype all of my DB apps this way.

Whilst I can (and do) run PG on my laptop, it not nearly as straight
forward, and when wanting to share my work with others at a conference,
trying to explain to them that they need to install Cygwin and IPC stuff
and then download PG then compile it, etc, etc. They usually lose
interest quickly.

When people want to try/play/prototype, installing Unix (many companies
still don't have spare, non-essential unix/linux boxen kicking around to
play with.

You don't understand the mindset behind the *yapping* MySQL users
because you DO understand PostgreSQL, because you appear to judge other
people by your own standards, instead of saying to yourself "There but
for the Grace of PostgreSQL Go I"

Try to understand that not everyone is blessed by your knowledge of PG,
or by your clarity of thought. It's easy to start throwing stones and
rocks at people, but I'm sure that we could all be criticised on our
choice of our software choices in one respect or another, since none of
us are beyond reproach, and we can't all be experts at everything.

The only reason that I'm making these points is that a few weeks ago I
thought the world was flat too, but a few people on this list took time
to explain to me with fact based points that the world was in fact
spherical and PG was a good thing.

How can you expect someone to understand why Nested Select staments are
good, if they ndo ot necessarilly understand what they might be good
for. In my experience, more than one time when investigating PG I had
a list of features MySQL lacked blurted at me without even considering
whether I understood what was being said. It may as well have been
Charlie Brown's Teacher talking to me ("whah whah, whah whah")

Remember Windows/MySQL users are Windows users usually for three
reasons: 1. They are blissfully ignorant of alternatives and don't know
any better. 2. Don't have the ability to be productive with the
alternatives, or don't have time to learn them (some people need to just
use computers without making them their lives) 3. Use laptops/PCs
provided by a work environment and must use Windows/MySQL because of
Tools, Programs, Applications and don't have the option to change.

Zealotry is not good in any form, whether it's pro or anti MySQL, PG,
Windows or whatever. Shouting about how another religion is bad doesn't
make your point of view sound any less fanatical.

I'll get off my soapbox now. But I was eventually convinced that PG was
good, and in turn I too have convinced a few MySQL users to take a
closer look at PG, that's how a community grows. Not with venom
spitting and name calling. I'm now a full card carrying member of
PostgreSQL, but fortunately never happened across any PG zealots during
my search.

Just my 2 cents. Flame away

Tony.

Casey Allen Shobe wrote:

>Martin Marques (Friday 26 December 2003 14:11)
>
>
>>Windows native port might be out in the next release (name it 7.5 or 8.0),
>>with many other things there, and it should be out by fall of next year,
>>which is much earlier then 2 years. :-)
>>
>>
>
>Great. But I really don't see how this makes the DBMS any better at all. So
>what if there's a native Windows port? Nobody that I've ever met or talked
>to uses MySQL on Windows anyways, and you can always use cygwin if you're
>really desperate.
>
>PostgreSQL is primarily an open-source database for open-source systems. If
>somebody wants to use MySQL just because they can run it on Windows, I say
>let them.
>
>What I *do* see is a whole bunch of MySQL users running around yapping about
>how great and fantastic and fast MySQL is and how crappy PostgreSQL is. I
>really don't understand them, and they're impossible to reason with.
>
>You can ask "Does MySQL support nested select statements? I use these every
>day", and they respond with "You can just use MySQL's proprietary SQL
>extensions to do the same thing another way; and MySQL is fast, too!".
>
>I think about the same of these people as I do of people who rave about the
>superiority of Windows, their chosen religion, or the country they live in -
>underinformed bigots.
>
>From all that I've read in terms of power, flexibility, and features,
>PostgreSQL is far ahead of MySQL. And I've yet to see even the slightest
>speed issue with a properly designed database schema. Maybe MySQL is faster
>with un-normalized tables, and that's why they like to say it's faster? I
>don't know, but I really don't care if that's the case.
>
>Vertu sæll,
>
>
>