Monday Aug 25, 2008
FrOSCon 2008 was a real success (http://www.froscon.org).
We have had lots of visitors at the PostgreSQL booth and also my
workshop was full. The same with Bernd's talk. For both my workshop and
Bernd's talk we got lots of positive feedback.
At the
PostgreSQL booth most visitors asked for migration from MySQL to
PostgreSQL. Also often we got questions about HA/Cluster/Replication.
Additionally there was a huge interest in Postgis.
Lots of visitor complained that tools like CMS tools just offer an interface to MySQL and not to PostgreSQL.
Additionally OpenOffice community asked for a native interface for OpenOffice to PostgreSQL. We will discuss this internally at Sun.
As
usual, lots of visitors just visited the booth to let us know how they
like PostgreSQL and how less problems they have with it.
Lots of visitors also asked me about the situation with PostgreSQL at Sun and when I told that Sun will offer PostgreSQL support รก la MySQL support in future they were very interested how to get it.
Thanks to the FrOSCon organisation who made this great event possible.
I think, when FrOSCon will grow further on, then I can see that it will be from international interest in 2010.
Thursday Aug 21, 2008
I am glad to announce FrOSCon 2008 (http://www.froscon.org).
This was always a great conference and I will hope that it will be great this year too.
I
will be responsible for the PostgreSQL booth. The booth will be in
front of AllBSD and next to MySQL. Honestly both MySQL and PostgreSQL are happy that the booths will be next to each other because both fear a
helper bottleneck. If there will be a bottleneck then we can help each
other.
If you want to join the FrOSCon and you want to help me with the PostgreSQL booth, please don't be too shy to let me know.
Besides the booth I will have a 3.5 hour workshop and Bernd Helmle from PostgreSQL community will have a talk about PostgreSQL troubleshooting.
Unfortunately, at
the last draft of the program my workshop and the talk will be
at the same time. I already talked to the FrOSCon organisation and they
were sorry for this mistake. They will look for a solution here.
Because I know how difficult this talk organisation is, I already
offered that we schedule my workshop for one more hour and I will make
a break that my students can listen the talk.
We will guarantee you, that you will get the possibility to take both Bernd's talk and my workshop.
The
workshop is scheduled in English. If there will be non German
understanding listeners then I will do it in English. If there will be
only Germans then of course I will do it in German. My slides will be
in English anyway. So, if you think about listening to my workshop but
you fear English just look into the room at the beginning. Maybe you
have luck and there will be only Gernans. If there will be only a
single non German understanding listener then I will switch to English
and do it in English.
Sun is sponsor from FrOSCon but that effects mainly MySQL and OpenSolaris. Anyway, they will sponsor my worktime.
Thursday Jun 26, 2008
History and Structure
One of the most important difference between PostgreSQL and MySQL is the history and the internal structure.
PostgreSQL:
PostgreSQL started as a university project and in 1996 some guys took it away from the university and let it start a new live at the open source world. It always was a community only project. Which is living from donations and sponsoring and most of its contributors are spending free time on it to work as volunteer for it. Today there are round about 200 developers world wide who are working more or minder permanently for PostgreSQL i.e. to give it a better quality or they are developping new and/or additional features. Also there are lots of other contributors who i.e. take care of donations or of internal administrative stuff like web servers or for marketing or whatever.
There is no company directly behind PostgreSQL and never will be. The contributors want that it will always stay a community only project.
The internal structure of PostgreSQL is hirarchical: There is a team of 7 core members. These 7 always will have the last word and will make the final descission.
MySQL:
MySQL started with Monty Widenius. He worked for a special costumer on another system. The costumer wanted to remove these other system because they needed a SQL interface. Now Monty took this system as kernel and put SQL on it. After this he founded together with two others the Swedish company: MySQL AB. The company growed quickly and got sub companies in several other countries like Finland, Germany, Japan or US. In 2008 Sun Microsystems offered 10^9 US Dollar for buying MySQL AB. MySQL AB and Sun Microsystems closed this deal and so today MySQL is part of Sun Microsystems.
MySQL always was open source and will ever be. Nobody, neither the old MySQL management nor the Sun management want to change this in future.
MySQL AB has had a typically hirarchical company structure and also of course Sun Microsystems has this structure.
The Difference:
PostgreSQL is a community project and MySQL has a company background. Both modells of course have advantages and disadvantages but both don't want to change their modell.
Frequently asked questions:
Where will I get commercial support or training for PostgreSQL?
Lots of contributors offer commercial support or training or consultant activities for PostgreSQL.
I am working for Sun Microsystems so it's legitime for me to recommend Sun Microsystems here:
Sun is one of the main sponsors of PostgreSQL. There are some contributors (including core member) working for Sun. Besides these contributors there are a bunch of other employees with a really great knowledge about PostgreSQL. Sun is offering commercial services for PostgreSQL world wide.
Will my old MySQL support contract get changes because of Sun Microsystems?
No. Sun Microsystems implemented MySQL AB as it was. On the first view: only the company name has changed. The old MySQL AB services and development employees are doing the same buisness at Sun Microsystems as they did at MySQL AB. Also the old costumer contracts will stay as they are.
How will this work with PostgreSQL and MySQL at Sun Microsystems?
As I told before: PostgreSQL and MySQL are two different pairs of shoes. Sun Microsystems will support both systems further on. They exist next to each other at the company.
Consider, that I am a contributor for PostgreSQL since years and since last year I am working for MySQL. So I support both systems too. That MySQL belongs to Sun Microsystems now means for me that I got a big brother who is supporting both.
There is no disadvantages to support both. There are only a advantages like knowledge about both and getting a better understanding for both systems.
Friday Jun 20, 2008
As I promised my first series here will be the difference between PostgreSQL and MySQL.
Prolog
The Open Source idea:
The open source idea is that you have multiple products on the market where the user can/should choose of his/her own what is the best for him/her or for his/her software or for his/her needs.
What does it mean:
This means: blaming each other is not even not gentle it is totally against the open source idea.
There is no better or worser open source product.
There are just different open source products.
PostgreSQL isn't better then MySQL neither is MySQL better then PostgreSQL.
Consider you have one pair of shoes for dancing in a ballroom and one pair of shoes for climbing through mountains.
Here also you never would make a comparison:
My ballroom shoes are better then my climbing shoes.
Maybe you will say:
My climbing shoes are not very good for dancing and I feel more comfortable dancing in my dancing shoes then in other shoes.
Or vise versa:
My ballroom shoes are not very good for climbing and I feel more familiar wearing this kind of climbing shoes then another kind.
This is the same with open source products and especially here with relational database management systems (RDBMS).
What is the best for me?
For figuring out what is the best for your issue, you have to consider lots of factors.
Of course you have to analyse your needs and which system will solve all your problems most easy for you and best way for you.
Also it depends on yourself.
There are still people outside who feel more familiar in a ballroom with sneakers then with high heels.
It's the same here as with your ballroom shoes.
You are very familiar with dancing on 12 cm high heels but your girlfriend feels lots of more comfortable dancing with only 6 cm high heels. You both will get really bad dancers and maybe break your legs when you just switch shoes.
What is the best system for you is always besides looking to features and needs depending on your individual character.
Behaviour:
It's only natural and human that product contributors always try to recommend their own product first.
But they always will accept when you say something like this:
"Thank you, it's a nice product but I think for me and my needs another product is better"
or that:
"Thank you, it's a nice product but I feel more familiar with the other product".
Open source product contributors and communities never should blame other open source products.
Blaming others is something that is frowned upon at the open source area.
Appeal:
Please,
- never blame here.
- always try to be fair and gentle.
Thursday Jun 19, 2008
This is my blog.
As PostgreSQL contributor and MySQL employee of course I will blog here about PostgreSQL and MySQL.
My idea is not to blog a whole topic on only one day.
I will make a "story" blog.
One topic and then you will get the content in smaller packages over more then one day.
My first topic will be the difference between MySQL and PostgreSQL and I will start it later this day or tomorrow.
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