Re: Why I'm going with MySQL instead of Postgres: Less breakability

#1

He wants SUPPORT? Try PostgreSQL, Inc.

The are in Nova Scotia and offer 24/7/365 support if you need it.

"Simon Ashford" <simon (AT) netlinkdata (DOT) co.uk> wrote

Quote:

Not to mention that Redhat Database is actually Postgres and they do
provide
support etc which no doubt you will need for your data worth millions.
Don't forget as well you will need a license for the commercial use of
MySQL
and they aren't cheap!

--
Simon Ashford MCP
IT Consultant, Netlink Data Solutions Limited.
"Alex Martinoff" <froggle2003 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:34f50f10.0306031639.206aa085 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...
After several days of Google searching and revisiting all the old
MySQL vs. Postgres arguments I decided that I would probably be
happier with Postgres even though the latest stable MySQL supports
replication while Postgres doesn't. Because of Postgres's better
scalability on standalone machines, I figured Postgress's support for
replication would be complete by the time my site generates enough
traffic to really need it.

So, I downloaded and installed postgres and then went to
jdbc.postgresql.org to download the latest jdbc .jar driver, only to
find that the site was down and has been for awhile. There is this
message on the frontpage of postgresql.org that has been there for
awhile:

"Due to a hard drive failure, developer.postgresql.org,
archives.postgresql.org and our mailing lists are currently
unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

On the front page of postgres.org there is no link to a list of
mirrors, and using google.com I eventually found the mirror list on
postgres.org, but the mirrors don't carry the jdbc driver.

Then I started to reflect on this situation. Any DB provider should
exude an aura of unbreakability. Why the hell are the postgres.org
people so incompetent that a single disk failure has brought down so
much of their site? And FOR SO LONG! I'm supposed to trust my data
worth millions to a product made by people that can't manage their own
data?

After doing more research, I've learned that Postgres has problems
with trashing databases---much more so than MySQL. MySQL instead I've
read likes to crash every 3 months and so should be restarted once per
month, which isn't so bad if you are using replication. That's
certainly not as bad as having to recover a trashed Postgres database
from a backup, especially when Postgres doesn't have a free turnkey
replication system like MySQL does. Each minute my Postgres db is down
while I'm recovering it I'll be losing money.

Yahoo is running a MySQL installation with replication that is much
larger and more impressive than any Postgres installation I've read
about.

The documentation on mysql.org is much better than the postgresql
documentation. The mailing list archives and the jdbc driver download
actually work to!

Look at how many different people have asked on this group about
replication solutions on Postgres only to be given unclear answers as
to what to do until the official replication is completed? It's really
sad.

It is interesting that SAP has decided to abandon SAPDB in favor of
MySQL instead of Postgres. I'd imagine they drew a few of the same
conclusions I did.

I'm happy that one disk failure brought down so much of
postgresql.org, because otherwise I would not have had such a valuable
warning to heed. I'm not going to let a disk failure bring down a
large part of my site as it has brought down Postgres's.

Maybe in a year I'll reexamine the Postgres vs. MySQL issue. It looks
like MySQL is catching up to Postgres's features (and even surpassing
with regards to replication) faster than Postgres is catching up to
MySQL's speed and other strengths. MySQL is getting a lot more
commercial support. It looks like MySQL has a brighter future than
Postgres.

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Re: Why I'm going with MySQL instead of Postgres: Less breakability

comp.databases.postgresql.general comp.databases.postgresql.general

Re: Why I'm going with MySQL instead of Postgres: Less breakability - 06-26-2003 , 06:22 PM