Feedback from LinuxWorld, London - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Reposted with attachment now accessible by link:
http://pgfoundry.org/docman/view.php/1000047/91/PostgreSQL_Flyer.ppt

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com>
To: pgsql-advocacy@postgresql.org
Cc: Mark Cave-Ayland <m.cave-ayland@webbased.co.uk>,
helen@2ndquadrant.com
Subject: Feedback from LinuxWorld, London
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:28:00 +0100

Mark Cave-Ayland, Helen Barnes and I have just completed running the
PostgreSQL stand at LinuxWorld, London. (First off: thanks guys -
apologies were received from number of others unable to make it at last
moment).

The stand was huge, in comparison to last year: we were provided with a
corner stand right in the main thoroughfare and the stand was very busy
for the whole two days. One of the surprising and most pleasant things
was the constant stream of people coming up and saying "we know you guys
are great, much better than X; thanks very much for your efforts" and
constantly shaking hands.

I wanted to record some lessons-learned for advocacy, based upon these
basic observations which we have pooled:

Questions that got asked multiple times, in very rapidly descending
frequency order were:

1= How do you differ from MySQL ? (All questioners assumed they would be
the same, apart from the differences, rather than assuming they were
different and asking for similarities...)

1= Do you support Replication/Fail-over/Load-balancing? Where can I get
information on it?

3. Where can I get support/hosting/training ?

4. What type of licence is it under? Will it always be free?

5. Is the Windows port just as good as the Linux one?

There were no questions at all on...

1. Certification

2. Object Relational stuff

3. I need this new really advanced, complex feature: **everything** was
about basics of compatibility, availability and access to information
about PostgreSQL which is out there but people didn't know it.

Main complaint about PostgreSQL

1. It isn't compatible with MySQL. I tried to port application X, which
only runs on MySQL and I couldn't get it to work.

2. It's slow (and I know this because):
- I ported this query from MySQL and it ran slow
- MySQL told me/I read it

3. I love Postgres, but at work we use X instead.

In general, stand visitors perceived these other products as competitors
(numbers are ratios, rather than a visitor count).

MySQL           25
Oracle          5
SQLServer       2
Ingres          1

From those observations, my own personal lessons learned would be:

- PostgreSQL has connected strongly with most technical staff that know
anything about databases. There is nothing to worry about in terms of
core functionality. PostgreSQL has connected very poorly with two
groups: technical people who are aware of, but know nothing about
databases and database final-decision-makers.

- Many current MySQL users would like to adopt PostgreSQL but feel
unable to do so because their application package does not support
PostgreSQL at all/well enough or they feel there are technical issues
with the MySQL to PostgreSQL code (not data) migration.

- Information about replication is not getting out there, even to the
people who know and love PostgreSQL.

- Most people's perception is that MySQL is PostgreSQL's competitor, and
my observation is that we don't specifically provide any direct
information or refutation to answer this Most Frequent Question.
[Objective feedback I have received was that the PostgreSQL people on
stand handled this question professionally and credibly by explaining
the differences and encouraging people to examine this for themselves,
rather than being dismissive or rude.]

I've attached the flyer we were giving out to people. We gave out every
single one of these, running out near end of second day.

Best Regards, Simon Riggs