Re: New to PostgreSQL

Steve Bergman wrote:
> PostGreSQL cons:

It seems to me that a lot of these arguments are based on hearsay.
You'd be better off downloading PostgreSQL and judging for yourself

> 1. My impression based on what I've seen written is that PHP/MySQL
> integration is better.  After all, while people talk of LAMP, one
> does not ever hear of LAPP.  However, looking over the functions
> available for each in PHP5, I don't see obvious evidence of this.

What many people don't know is that LAMP actually stands for Linux,
Apache, Middleware, PostgreSQL.  Nonetheless, "integration is better"
is a nearly content-free statement without any details.

> 2. Administration is more difficult.

Again, this is hearsay unless you've tried it yourself.  Who would take
the "PHP5 MySQL Bible" as a judge on that?

> 3. I prefer MySQL's phpmyadmin to the command line for working with
> the database.  I have heard that phppgadmin is not as feature
> complete. However, looking over my recent installation, I don't see
> glaring differences.

Again, hearsay.  Try it yourself.

> 4. MySQL is more multiplatform.  While this does not bother me, I do
> have coworkers that use Windows that will be affected by my choice of
> database.  Fortunately, I believe 7.5 is to have true (i.e.
> non-cygwin win32 support).

Ignoring the Windows port, PostgreSQL is usually more multiplatform.
What really matters, however, is the platform you're interested in.

> 5. Performance.  Here it seems almost impossible to get solid
> information, and what little there is out there seems quite dated.
> My general impression is that under light load and simple queries,
> MySQL is more nimble, but that under heavier, multi-user load more
> complex queries PostgreSQL pulls ahead.

This is approximately right, but again, try it yourself.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/