Draft #5 -- radically re-written - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy
From | Josh Berkus |
---|---|
Subject | Draft #5 -- radically re-written |
Date | |
Msg-id | 200307291305.56949.josh@agliodbs.com Whole thread Raw |
Responses |
Re: Draft #5 -- radically re-written
Re: Draft #5 -- radically re-written Re: Draft #5 -- radically re-written |
List | pgsql-advocacy |
Advocacy people: What follows is my re-write of the press release. I was operating on the idea of "telling a story", per Heather's advice earlier. The general idea is to piggyback on the current press fad of articles about MySQL challenging Oracle; we present the more formidable challenge, and should let the press know it. Thus the sequence goes: 1) Here's how were as good as Oracle/DB2/MSSQL, but cheaper; 2) We've made it easier to switch from them; 3) our current users are excited about the release, too. Surprisingly enough, I was able to get almost all of our new features to fit into this framework. WE NEED TO FINISH THIS BY FRIDAY! We will have to get copies to the translators in time for them to translate, as questions, and correct, so we can't tinker to perfection. Comments and requests for this version of the press release --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. I am not *at all* attached to the ordering of the "features" in this version; please suggest better orderings. 2. Also, a lot of my "hype it up" wording could use some help. Please? Particularly I hate the phrase "last piece of the puzzle" but I couldn't think of anything else. 3. In our "enterprise features", does the "Advanced SQL" paragraph work, or will it just confuse people? 4. I added three non-profit orgs and two Open Source projects to our list of "companies". Does this work? 5. I changed it to "hundreds" of developers. Our last count was contributors btw. 6.3 and 7.3, which included some 200 people; I doubt that number has dropped. 6. My spellcheck on Kate bugged out, so please look for broken words below and help me fix them! 7. In addition to the "tranisitioning from other databases" features mentioned below, we have two biggies that won't be ready for 7.4: the Windows Port and dblink_oracle. Should we mention these as "coming soon"? 8. Can someone think of a better name than "EXPLICT JOIN REWRITING"? 9. Other suggestions? =================================================================== The PostgreSQL Global Development Group is pleased to announce the availability of version 7.4 of the PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). This major release, the work of our world wide network of hundreds of developers and contributors over the last 9 months, provides commercial-grade enterprise database functionality and performance for the very economical overhead cost of Open Source software. "If you tried PostgreSQL before, and went with a commercial database like Oracle or DB2 instead, it's time to re-evaluate," says Rod Taylor of Inquent Technologies. "PostgreSQL's expanding enterprise feature set and performance improvements over the last two years make PostgreSQL competitive with even the highest-end database systems. And it's certainly less expensive." NEW ENTERPRISE DATABASE FEATURES ------------------------------------------ Among the large enterprise features which have been added, expanded, or improved in version 7.4 are: OPTERON SUPPORT: PostgreSQL is now optimized on the AMD Opteron, thanks to the work of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, adding to the family of proven 64-bit platforms which includes HP/Compaq, Alpha, Sun UltraSPARC, MIPS, PA-RISC, and RS6000*. 64-bit platforms are an emerging class of high-performance computing, with greater power and scaleability needed for enterprise systems. REPLICATION: PostgreSQL Inc. and Affilias Inc. this week contributed their eRServer Java-based replication solution for PostgreSQL. eRServer provides a tremendously scalable, battle-tested replication option significantly more powerful than previous Open Source solutions available. PERFORMANCE: Several major performance enhancements have been added in version 7.4, ensuring that PostgreSQL can match or exceed other enterprise database systems' speed. These include: - Hash aggregation in memory to make data warehousing and OLAP queries up to 20 times faster; - Improvements in subquery handling by the planner resulting in up to 400% speed increases in some complex queries; - New wire protocol (version 3) increases the speed of data transfers; - Enhanced implementation of functional indexes allows better indexing on custom data types and composite fields. HIGH AVAILABILITY: Expansion of PostgreSQL's Free Space Map disk management feature to support continuous index maintenence is the last "piece of the puzzle" in providing 99.999% uptime for PostgreSQL databases. Further, 7.4 downloads with the new Auto Vacuum Daemon which eliminates the guesswork from scheduling database maintenence. FULL TEXT INDEXING: PostgreSQL's TSearch module now includes a ranked preference system, making TSearch equal to or better than many full text indexing solutions offered by other RDBMSs. ADVANCED SQL FEATURES: PostgreSQL continues to expand its support for the Intermediate and Advanced portions of the SQL 92 and 99 standards including some SQL features not found in other databases. New in 7.4 are statement-level triggers and read-only transactions, as well as several SQL extensions including multi-byte regular expressions, polymorphic functions, and enhanced array data type handling. ADOPTING POSTGRESQL EASIER THAN EVER --------------------------------------- As many Database Administrators (DBAs) will want to try PostgreSQL 7.4 for their companies, we have taken several steps to make the transition from other enterprise databases to PostgreSQL easier: SQL-STANDARD ERROR FRAMEWORK: The PostgreSQL Team hascompletelyy redesigned error logging and reporting, providing developers with an SQL99 compliant mechanism for debugging and troubleshooting, and giving users real time suggestions on how to avoid error conditions in their applications. REORGANIZED AND EXPANDED DOCUMENTATION: The documentation contributors have completely reorganized and added many new pages to the online documentation, making it easier for first-time PostgreSQL DBAs to get their databases built, tuned, and running. SQL-STANDARD INFORMATION SCHEMA: 7.4 includes an SQL99 compliant Information Schema (or "metadata"). This provides application developers with database, type, object, and configuration information in a way which eases the migration of interfaces and middleware between database systems, and even the replication of data between commercial databases and PostgreSQL. EXPLICIT JOIN REWRITING: Core developer Tom Lane has included an option for explicit join rewriting by the query planner, easing the transition of existing applications and queries running on Sybase and MS SQL Server, which handle queries this way by default. ENTERPRISE USERS ANTICIPATING 7.4 ------------------------------------ "We have used PostgreSQL successfully for over two years in a mission-critical capacity to support our registry systems," said Ram Mohan, Chief Technology Officer for Afilias Limited, the company responsible for running the backend database containing all .info and .org Internet domain names worldwide. "This upgrade of PostgreSQL improves the scalability and capacity of PostgreSQL and will help to ensure continued advancements to future releases. For real-time operations, the planner/optimizer enhancements adds more intelligence and allows more efficient operation of the database. In addition, the expanded trigger capabilities sets up the basis for even further gains in future versions of PostgreSQL." "[quote from Lamar Owen will go here]" commented Lamar Owen, Director of Information Technology for the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. RELEASE DETAILS ------------------------------------- Source for this release is available at: http://www.postgresql.org/mirrors-ftp.html More information on PostgreSQL is available in ten languages on the PostgreSQL Advocacy website: http://advocacy.postgresql.org/ A complete list of changes in PostgreSQL version 7.4 can be found in the HISTORY file included with the release, or available on the web at: [http://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/740.html] About PostgreSQL: With more than 16 years of development by hundreds of the world's most generous and brilliant minds from the open source community, PostgreSQL is the world's most advanced open source database. With its long time support of an enterprise level feature set including transactions, stored procedures, triggers, and subqueries, PostgreSQL is being used by many of today's most demanding businesses and government agencies. Corporations such as BASF, Red Hat, Afilias Limited, Cisco, Chrysler, and 3Com, organizations like WGCR Radio, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, and Open Source projects including Bricolage and OpenACS rely on PostgreSQL's rock solid performance record and open development process. PostgreSQL is available under a BSD License for both commercial and non-commercial use. To find out more about PostgreSQL or to download it, please visit: http://www.postgresql.org/ Note to Editors: Additional information on the following companies quoted in this release can be found at: Inquent Technologies: Insert URL Contact: Insert corp. comm contact person Afilias Limited : http://www.afilias.info/about_afilias/backgrounder Contact: Heather Carle 215-706-5777 hcarle@afilias.info Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute: Insert URL Contact: Insert corp. comm contact person. -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
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