Re: Time to work on Press Release 8.0 - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Agreed ... to me, I see at least three press releases that could be
created:

PostgreSQL RDBMS 8.0.0 and all its new features
Slony as a new replication option
pgFoundry as the new collaborative development environment

the thing with announcing pgFoundry is that it would take some 'sting' out
of your point about eliminating things from the source tree, as what we'd
be doing with pgxs is moving contrib to a more visible development
environment ...

I just feel that Slony is large enough that, again, the focus of ppl
reading the press release is going to be split from what is new as far as
the server is concerned, by drawing ppls eyes to something that, by the
time we release, will be 3 months (or more) old ...

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004, Christopher Browne wrote:

> Quoth scrappy@postgresql.org ("Marc G. Fournier"):
>> On Fri, 13 Aug 2004, Jan Wieck wrote:
>>
>>> Every time PostgreSQL is discussed, be that slashdot or LWN or other
>>> forums or even interviews with any of out competitors, the statement
>>> is "doesn't have replication". If we avoid the topic in our 8.0
>>> press release and leave out the word replication, instead of
>>> pointing to the reasons why it is *better not to have replication
>>> builtin*, we will lose. People will read the press release, don't
>>> see the word replication, so "No Replication - checkmark".
>>
>> Except that "Have Replication" to those claiming 'No Replicatin' means
>> "Integrated with the Server", we still don't *have* Replication in
>> their minds, no matter how many external projects that do it we
>> mention ;(
>
> Perhaps.
>
> Another feature that is emerging is Peter and Fabian's work to make it
> easier to have a build environment that _isn't_ a PG source tree that
> you can use to compile "extensions" against.
>
> That's pretty key to the ability for people running "packaged"
> distributions to be able to easily deploy extensions.  It's certainly
> a prerequisite to having plenty-o-language extensions for any systems
> that deploy code in binary form.  And I'm not sure that BSD Ports is
> _totally_ comfortable with there needing to be packages that are
> source installs; it looks as though their users kind of like to do a
> "make clean" to drop out the deteriorata once one is done installing a
> package.
>
> The improved "working infrastructure for pg extensions" aka pgxs is
> well worth pointing out as a way of letting there be a whole lot more
> extensions that are simultaneously:
>
>  - Decoupled so that they may be pushed _OUT_ of the source tree, and
>    yet
>  - Not turned into a Huge Pain In The Neck To Compile.
>
> This has the substantial merit that new things that are, to coin a
> phrase, "pgxs-compliant," can be treated as new features that, while
> not included in the strict "PostgreSQL source tree," are still readily
> available.
>
> For someone that's considering what database system they should choose
> to use, it would be foolish to ignore the software that sits alongside
> it, readily integrable, no?
>
> If "pgxs" makes it possible to take most of the stuff presently
> sitting in "contrib" and eliminate it from the source tree of
> "PostgreSQL, the Database Proper," then that _drops_ the amount of
> functionality found in "The Database, Proper," which sure looks like
> the wrong message to send out if what's really happening is that it
> has been made _EASIER_ to have plenty-O-extensions.
>
> You'll notice, I trust, that I never used the word 'replication' in
> any of the above.  I daresay I'm biased from several perspectives,
> nicely illustrated in that while I'm writing this, I'm monitoring the
> installation of an ERS instance that's going to get used for a
> migration to Slony-I ;-).
> --
> wm(X,Y):-write(X),write('@'),write(Y). wm('cbbrowne','acm.org').
> http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/internet.html
> I hate wet paper bags.
>
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----
Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
Email: scrappy@hub.org           Yahoo!: yscrappy              ICQ: 7615664