Re: Where is Postgesql ? - MYSQL SURPRISES WITH MAXDB / - Mailing list pgsql-general

Randolf Richardson wrote:
>         From my perspective MySQL and PostgreSQL are completely different
> projects (for starters they even use different licensing schemes -- BSD v.
> GPL) that are in competition.  Since PostgreSQL stands on its own without
> any dependencies on MySQL, I don't see any reason why PostgreSQL would
> suffer in any way if MySQL came to an end;

The headlines that "Jack and Jill Wall Street" will be reading in the
nightmarish outcome of "something bad" happening to MySQL will not be
"MySQL.com Fails To Migrate To SAPDB", it will be "Open Source Database
Disaster".  The article will spin the story into rhetoric about how this
team of hackers failed to accomplish the simple task of taking code from
an ancient mainframe database system and making it work.... with the
implication woven in that if open source/free software programmers can't
even get old software to work, how can they get new software to work?

Jack and Jill Wall Street only read the headlines*. They rarely if ever
read the first paragraph, and only the smallest fraction of them read
the whole article.  Out of that miniscule fraction, the ones who
actually do any groundwork of their own to figure out what the newspaper
was talking about, are yourselves and myself.

Combine that with the newspapers' habit of writing headlines to sell
newspapers, rather than tell the truth, and you can see where any
undesirable outcome in an open source project will lead. Especially with
"open source is bad" being topic-du-jour what with SCO vs World going on
right now.

Anyone who actually works with computers (as opposed to accomplishes
their work using computers) is more likely to understand that there's
more to any problem or statement than just the words. If we heard a
story about "Is Your Car And Incinerator On Wheels?", we'd be more
likely to think, "what are they on about?" - Jack and Jill Wall Street
will be thinking, "what if my car *is* an incinerator on wheels?".

Once you come to the realisation that people are not inherently good or
evil, they are just (as a whole) inherently stupid**, the whole world
starts to make a lot more sense.

Alex

* I'm going to cop out here and say "I forget where these figures come
from" - but in truth, it's just that Google can't remember for me ;)
Check out how most people recommend teaching kids to read newspapers,
and you'll find out why people develop bad habits like forming opinions
from headlines!

** In any sufficiently large group of people, the average intelligence
tends towards the minimum. I can't remember whose axiom that was... but
it refers (more or less) to the fact that in a group, people want to
conform, and conformity means not asking questions, which means
believing whatever you're told, which means that you're being stupid.