Re: [GENERAL] Future of PostgreSQL

At 06:25 PM 12/25/99 +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
>On Sat, 25 Dec 1999, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>
> > Consider this:
> >
> > The stock market going crazy over Linux stocks
> > Interbase users are considering moving en-mass to PostgreSQL
> > Publishers are crawling all over each other to publish a
> PostgreSQL book
> >
> > With these signs, it is possible we may be _very_ popular in the near
> > future. I am not sure this will happen, but I didn't think this would
> > happen to Linux.
>
>The worst thing we could do is to intentionally try to stay less than
>popular. There's a reason Linux is taking off and *BSD isn't really, and
>it's not technology. (Sorry, Marc.)

I don't think the *BSD's have intentionally tried any such thing. You
could possibly have picked up these vibes from certain members of the Open
BSD camp, but I wouldn't extend them to encompass the *BSD community at
large. (And I wonder if I should comment about how Linux people are
migrating to the *BSD camps in droves.... But I guess it'd be best to just
let it slide ;-o)

> >
> > My big question is, what new challenges will we face as we become more
> > popular?
> >
> > Do we have the proper license? I know this has the possibility of
> > opening up a GPL vs. BSD slugfest. However, I will not let such a
> > discussion get out of control.
> >
> >
>
>One thing we should definitely attempt to do before 7.0 is write our own
>license or at least our own copyright in addition to the BSD license,
>since none of us (?) actually work at UCB.

I come to pgsql from MySQL. I've not done much of anything with it yet
really, so I should probably keep my mouth shut. But I thought you might
be interested in my perspective. And, after all, you did ask... My hands
on experience with pgsql is minimal, but follows is the sense I get from
the larger community and having lurked on this list for a bit.

The primary "feature" that has me looking at pgsql again is the license. I
like MySQL. The MySQL community is great. I don't like their license,
however, and feel pretty strongly about it. I would counsel against
developing your own. Why reinvent the wheel unless you've got some special
agenda that requires it? I prefer the more liberal BSD, but GPL is fine.

Transaction support is also nice, but secondary to license issues. There
are mysql workarounds in for the absence of transaction support, but it's
hard to get around the license and still be honest.

I would hope that future development continues to focus on reliability,
functionality, and speed. Your work will then speak for itself and more
people will adopt pgsql. I initially ruled it out because of reliability
and speed concerns. The past year has seen much improvement in these
areas, enough to have piqued my interest once again. The *perception*
remains, however, that pgsql still leaves a bit to be desired in the areas
of reliability and maintainability. This needs to be remedied. Like I
said, progress has been mad, but it appears pgsql isn't quite out of the
woods yet.

Well, there's my $0.02. Thanks for your indulgence.

Regards-- Ken