Re: [GENERAL] Re: [HACKERS] [Fwd: SGVLLUG Oracle and Informix on Linux]

scrappy@hub.org (The Hermit Hacker) writes:

| > A lot of them "look good" at first glance.  The problem seems to be that
| > the implementations tend to be spotty and incomplete amongst the
| > packages I've looked at.  None of them are robust or complete enough for
| > most commercial use.
|
| And you've, of course, discussed these failings with the authors of the
| software itself?  Or did you do like most and just drop the software as being
| incomplete?

Uh . . . I'm not slighting the authors of the software, nor am I even slighting
the software itself.  All I'm saying is that, as a consultant, I can't yet
recommend any for commercial use, and that hinders the adoption of PostgreSQL
by commercial entities.  That's all.  I didn't say *anything* about whether *I*
use them or not.  Nor did I say that the authors were unresponsive, or anything
of the sort.

| We've been going, what, 2 years now?

Hey, I freely confess that I'm feeling impatient.  :)

| [...] if everyone just writes them off, then the author's have no reason, or
| desire, to maintain them.

Which is exactly what worries me.  Businesses hire me, often looking to me to
save them money and/or time, and provide process improvement (whether that be
new applications, more reliability, whatever).  Often, a free Unix variant will
serve the purpose they're looking for---file server, print server, mail server,
web server, all stable services.  But when the question of databases comes up,
and they want something as stable and full-featured, I do something that
frustrates me:  I tell the truth.  "Outer joins?"  "No."  "Replication?"  "No."
And so on.

And that's why I get impatient.  PgSQL is *so* *close* to being something I can
say, "Look, most of the stuff you *require* in Oracle, you can have for free,
and look at some of these other features!"  But not yet.

| They label themselves an RDBMS, so I personally think that *not* including
| them would be frowned upon by those looking at the comparison as being a
| slight.

Ah.  That's a good point, and one I hadn't considered.

| Have you looked into what it would take to do such? [types in separate files]

A little.  Scares the heck outta me.  :)

                            ---Ken