Re: The naming question (Postgres vs PostgreSQL)

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007, Joe Conway wrote:

> 6) Change the name to "Postgres" and emphasize "PostgreSQL" as
> an alternative
> My vote -- #6. Announce it with release of 8.3. Allow a relatively slow,
> natural transition from "PostgreSQL with Postgres as alt" to "Postgres with
> PostgreSQL as alt" (e.g. over the course of a year or so as has been
> mentioned).

I note that this plan seems to be the only one that takes into
consideration the concerns people have raised about already printed promo
materials and the like. Put people on notice: if you're having stuff
printed from now on, use Postgres, because eventually PostgreSQL will
clearly be the secondary name; but for now they're both fine. Expect to
stay in that state for at least a year. You could avoid touching anything
internally in 8.3 to support this change, which side-steps all the
packaging concerns until 8.4, but just announce the plan at that point.
That would be the only way to handle this I'd add a +1 to.

In addition to the reasons for simplifying the name everyone else has
pointed out, which I completely agree with, I'd like to add that having
the name so similar to MySQL is also a source of confusion for some people
I've dealt with. Just last week, I had someone tell me they had been
ignoring PostgreSQL because they assumed from the name it was some sort of
Ingres/MySQL bastard child. It was easy to explain that Postgres started
as a second-generation design from the same person who developed Ingres
and then expanded as an open-source project; the fact that I had to then
explain where the SQL part came from needlessly complicated the
discussion.

I also note that it wasn't too long ago some were complaining about too
much traffic on the advocacy list making it unsuitable for some people who
might otherwise contribute usefully in this area; this week, I'm about
ready to unsubscribe myself. Can someone create pgsql-arguments and force
the kinds of controversial discussions that play out on this list to move
to there or something?

--
* Greg Smith gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD