From: | Gavin Sherry <swm(at)linuxworld(dot)com(dot)au> |
---|---|
To: | Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> |
Cc: | Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us>, pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org |
Subject: | Re: Are we losing momentum? |
Date: | 2003-04-15 00:18:59 |
Message-ID: | Pine.LNX.4.21.0304151002040.10732-100000@linuxworld.com.au |
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Lists: | pgsql-advocacy pgsql-general pgsql-hackers pgsql-patches |
On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> > Several people have asked if we are losing momentum.
>
> I don't think we are losing momentum considering the project in
> isolation --- things seem to be moving as well as they ever have,
> if not better.
I agree. I am surprised at the pace at which new features are added,
considering the relatively small number of people working on the project.
>
> But I do sometimes worry that we are losing the mindshare war.
> We might be growing fine, but if we're growing slower than MySQL is,
> we've got a problem. I was just in the local Barnes & Noble store
> yesterday, and could not help but notice how many books had "MySQL" in
> the title. I didn't notice a single Postgres title (though I did not
> look hard, since I was just passing through the computer area).
I've considered this at length. I put some ideas together in December and
sent it off to the advocacy list. Most/all were not implemented -- not
least because I didn't do anything I said I would :-). But, some of the
most important things, such as a proper media kit, quotes for journos,
press contacts with authority to give fast/correct answers really need to
be implemented.
As for why MySQL has *significantly* more market share: there's not a lot
we can match them on. They have significant financial backing -- important
if you're an IT manager who actually knows very little about the technical
merit of the product. It has close ties to a *very* widely deployed
scripting language (PHP). MySQL AB employs marketing and 'advocacy' staff,
who attend conferences all over the world, speak several languages, and
have a fairly good understanding of the industry, open source, databases,
etc. They have infrastructure: tech support, on site support,
consultancy.
MySQL AB promotes MySQL as a high performance database, easy to use,
uncomplicated, with features implemented in a way which is syntactically
convenient -- not 'complicated' like Oracle, DB2 or Postgres.
Its hard to argue against that. At a *technical* conference I recently
spoke at, I was criticised for delivering a talk which was too advanced
and didn't explain Postgres for MySQL users. During a lecture series at a
university, I was criticised for not discussing Oracle instead of Postgres
-- students told me that Oracle will make them money and Postgres wont.
Regardless, I'm still of the opinion that if you build it, they will come
-- particularly costly features like replication, PITR, etc. But maybe
that is what the BSDs say about Linux?
Gavin
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