Re: PostgreSQL Windows port strategy - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

>>>Vatamanescu Victor said:> I don't really much care what's the OS our product is running on. I care muc    h about
ourproduct's high availability, speed, scalability etc. In the la    st month I saw on this list a lot of opinions
regardingthe differences be    tween various operating systems. I havent saw opinions regarding the funct    ionalities
exposedby our direct competitors: other dmbs. Do we want to tr    ansform PostgreSQL in the next generation's OS and I
amnot aware?
 

PostgreSQL is what it is, which certainly is not an OS.

If PostgreSQL was 'Operating System' we wouldn't care much on what 'Operating 
System' it runs, right?

But most of the things related to performance AND functionality of PostgreSQL 
depend very much on what OS you use to build and run it on. (otherwise it 
could well contain portions of the OS much like Oracle does :)

While I agree, that (any) Windows platform may be useful for a lot of things, 
it's true that one should be wary of Windows, for things like software 
development (due to it's unstable API), platform stability (I have yet to know 
someone who didn't have to reinstall Windows every month or so), performance 
(you can hardly explain to customers, why their new personal Windows 
Workstation requires > 1 GHz processor, > 256 MB RAM etc while showing them 
how a moderate PostgreSQL database server that could serve their entire 
company can run on much older/slower/cheaper hardware).

There is nothing wrong in having nice Windows based GUI for accessing 
databases, but turning a graphical workstation into database server is 
something that has never worked in the computer history (the opposite has 
happened from time to time).

Windows has lost the game when Microsoft decided to abandon support for 
non-Intel CPUs in Windows NT (VMS actually).
> I can guarantee you good software can be written on Windows too. I can guara    ntee you that moving PostgreSQL on
Windowsis the best move PostgreSQL. I     can guarantee you a MMC Snap-In for PostgreSQL and a Visual Studio .NET ad
d-infor PostgreSQL can help PostgreSQL becomming a leader.
 

While enough was said in this list regarding the Windows port - nothing could 
stop anyone to port an open-source database to whatever platform, including 
Windows. The better the platform knowledge of the porting team, the better the 
result. But 'moving' PostgreSQL to Windows won't happen.
> But discussions like "Windows is a B category platform" and "Windows will di    e tommorow" and "Linux is the best"
won'tlead us on a top position.
 

My personal favorite is BSD/OS and for what it matters, Windows cannot solve the kind of tasks, that BSD/OS solves for
me.period.
 

Daniel

PS: I probably sound too anti-Microsoft biased, which is not true. I just don't care about Microsoft - I use Windows
fromtime to time when someone sends me $@^#$&@*&#&*$-Microsoft-Office formatted document that will not open anywhere
else.Windows also makes great launcher for my father's Heroes III game. ;-)