Re: Feedback from LinuxWorld, London - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Anyone else having trouble with that link? It's coming out as a blank
presentation for me.

On Sun, Oct 09, 2005 at 09:41:48PM +0100, Simon Riggs wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
>        subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your
>        message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
>

--
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461