Re: drupal.org MySQL database issues

On 5/17/07, Gavin M. Roy <gmr@myyearbook.com> wrote:
> Do we really want to pursue making PostgreSQL easier to admin for the
> non-system admin?  Cpanel and plesk and like tools are pretty far down the
> list of important things to support or code for.

From my perspective, the PostgreSQL development community focuses
mostly on stability and standards than on nifty features,
administration, and usability.  It's great that we have a solid
database, but that's worth nothing more than a mere hobby if no one
chooses to use it.

Microsoft, Oracle, and even MySQL have realized that administration
and management play a significant role in adoption.  Good
administration tools get people into using the system without having
to fully understand the nuts-and-bolts of the system... which is
basically required if you want to tune PostgreSQL worth a darn.  Sure,
there are tools out there for PostgreSQL that are great at
administration and development, but they're standalone, not well known
outside the community, and don't really integrate with anything
commonly used.

It would be nice if we had community development members that would
focus on adding PostgreSQL support into major OSS projects, but it
doesn't seem like we either don't have that crowd, or none are
especially eager to volunteer for those tasks.

In this thread, I've seen several people say something to the effect
of, "why is PostgreSQL harder to use than MySQL?"  IMHO, it's
difficult for us to answer that question because we're all experienced
with PostgreSQL and have somewhat biased opinions on what it takes to
administer and manage PostgreSQL compared with other systems.

Rather than shooting down newbie suggestions, as we sometimes do,
perhaps we should keep them in mind.  It's a difficult situation to be
in, and I don't see any simple answers.

Just my 2 cents.

--
Jonah H. Harris, Software Architect | phone: 732.331.1324
EnterpriseDB Corporation            | fax: 732.331.1301
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