Re: replacing Access/ Approach etc

Zenaan Harkness wrote on 08.09.2007 07:03:
> Hi, a friend of mine on Windows, is attempting to convert to using
> PostgreSQL (and of course, I'm helping him).
>
> The installation gave an option to run as an application, rather than as
> a service.
>
> Turns out, my friends login account has Admin privs, and postgres.exe
> will not run in an account with admin privs.
>
> He wants to keep the "lightweight feel" and frankly I'd like that on my
> Ubuntu box as well - to just fire up a local instance of postgresql
> pointing at a particular "data" directory, and listing (on loopback/
> localhost only) on an instance-specific port (point the exe at a local
> .conf file).

When I started using Postgres for more than just testing, I had the same
feeling, but frankly the overhead of starting a PostgreSQL service is so small,
that I now happily auto-start the service at boot time (Windows XP).
You won't even notice that it's running (from a performance point of view).

> Is it useful goal to consider running multiple instances of pg, ala
> microsoft access, lotus approach, etc?

So my recommendation would be: do install it as a service (any OS), and create
multiple databases. Once done that you don't need to worry about starting or
stopping the thing. It's simply available. I'd think that starting Access has
more overhead than having a PG server sitting in the background (doing nothing)

Thomas