Re: Is my MySQL Gaining ? - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hi all,
Comments inline

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@postgresql.org>
To: "Chris Travers" <chris@travelamericas.com>
Cc: <aspire420@hotpop.com>; <pgsql-advocay@postgresql.org>;
<pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Is my MySQL Gaining ?


> On Sat, 27 Dec 2003, Chris Travers wrote:
>
> > 2: Maintaining centralized corporate control over everything in the
> > database manager.  This slows their rate of development and we will
> > continue to move faster than them.
>
> This could be argued both ways, actually ... their model makes for less
> discussions on how to implement things ... they decide to implement it, do
> it and commit the code without having to worry about whether anyone else
> agrees with it ...
>
> The flip side to this, of course, is the lack of input from other
> developers who may (or may not) agree with how it is being implemented ...

Actually my concern here is something else.  Open source is a very different
software development methodology than proprietary software development is.
Some time ago, in the MySQL manuals, I had actually see them claim that the
larger development community of PostgreSQL was a bad thing.

See-- here is the problem:  Open Source development is at its best when the
core team, in addition to doing development, help to foster an environment
whereby the project grows in community-driven ways.  I am not sure that a
close corporate control over an open source project will ever lead to
optimal software because the software will end up stuck between worlds.
This is a major problem for some open source projects.

I have always been a firm believer that software can be either proprietary
or open source, but that the two cannot be combined well into one for
general purpose tools and platforms.  I feel that this is the mistake that
Caldera made which has lead to their fall from one of the leading distros to
the current situation where it is not even maintained anymore.  In trying to
sell Linux as if it were a proprietary platform, they allowed Red Hat in
particular to out-manuver them.  This is the same problem that Trolltech and
MySQL AB have today, for which UserLinux has decided to use GNOME instead of
KDE, and I would be surprised if people selling proprietary apps would
choose MySQL over PostgreSQL.

Simply put my point is that software can be proprietary or open source, but
projects which try to do both often end up losing out.  I see MySQL as
trying to do both.

As much as I like the idea of open sourse software, at this time, there is
still a substantial market for proprietary applications, and although it may
fade over time (and has already done so considerably), it is a market that
must open source software must co-exist with rather than simply attempting
to assimilate or trying to belong to both communities..  This is also why I
have argued that the GPL is intended for self-contained projects, of which
MySQL is not, when you include the client libs.

In short, I do not see MySQL as any sort of threat to PostgreSQL, near or
long-term.  PostgreSQL will continue when MySQL no longer exists.  Firebird
is a more serious competitor long-term, though I found it to be hard to
learn when compared to PostgreSQL.  It has a long way to go before being as
easy to use as PostgreSQL.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers