Re: (wtf) Top 20 Open Source Software Projects in the Enterprise

On Jul 24, 2007, at 7:59 AM, JoshuaKramer wrote:
>> 1. A lot more people know MySQL and thus can be hired, and in
>> theory be immediately productive.
>> 2. MySQL people are cheaper. On average from the people I talk to
>> 30-40% cheaper than a qualified PostgreSQL DBA.
>
> My response: if you are an A/V production company wanting to buy
> new equipment, do you go to Wal*Mart and buy the $999 Plasma TV
> Special, or do you go to an A/V supply house and buy a good,
> commercial-quality unit for $2400?
>
> I know I'm preaching to the choir, but consider: is your 40%
> cheaper MySQL admin going to know how to secure your data properly
> so you don't loose a few bits here and there?  If your data is only
> ancillary to your business - like if you're a plumber and
> connecting pipes is your thing - them MySQL might be OK, and your
> 40% cheaper admin would fit the bill.

You think the CTO or CFO in most companies have any clue what ACID
means (beyond LSD)?

> If, however, you depend on your data, then it's worth paying for
> someone who knows their salt.

Ok, how many companies bank their entire business on PostgreSQL but
don't have a support contract? Sure, the odds of something going
wrong are small and the community generally does a great job at
support, but if an hour of downtime will cost you thousands of
dollars, doesn't it make sense to spend a couple grand on a support
contract?

> On a somewhat related topic - how is MySQL 5 wrt reliability?
> Let's say you have a database that uses innodb and does type
> checking - is MySQL as robust as PGSQL when it comes to being able
> to pull the plug out of the socket (or deal with HW errors)?

You can certainly make MySQL as robust as PostgreSQL; it's just
harder to do so.
--
Jim Nasby                                            jim@nasby.net
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)