Re: Is my MySQL Gaining ? - Mailing list pgsql-general

I was thinking more along the lines of a company that said "Hey, we've got a core app on MySQL which is running like a bag of bolts, can you come and troubleshoot it for us."  A company quite rightly would get a little edgy with someone saying sorry guys, it's new DB time.  You'd want to go and work with them and help them to move in the right direction.

Keith C. Perry wrote:

Quoting Tony <tony@unihost.net>:
 

Sadly a company will believe anything that a consultant they trust tells 
them.  Otherwise there'd be little point in hiring a consultant to give 
them advice would there?   

There are different levels of trust and in addition sometimes consultants are
used for feasibility studies- "how would you do this?"  If you're telling me
you've never been in a situation where a client called you in because they want
to implement a project with certain products or other specification because they
have "done the research and want to proceed this way" then I'm very glad to hear
that.  No matter how much you are trusted as a consultant or technical advisor
you are still just a guide. That means it is possible for your client is "wander
off the path".  I remember in the not so long ago days when people wanted to run
certain hardware or software because to not do so would give the perception that
you were not up to par.  Sometimes what is used has nothing to do with using the
best product for the job.  That seems to be a sub-text of this thread. 

Exactly!!   I've been in a position where no matter how hard Linux has been rationalised as the right solution for a job, the management and board have been Windows Marketed, and refuse to go any other way.  I've also been at companies where the entire global operation was a Novell shop looking at an upgrade bill well into the high 7 digits, when MS came along and said well give you the OSs for free if you migrate.   You just can't factor in for situations like that.  Although some companies, like one I have just worked for, have no technical in house ability at all and listened to a reputable consultant, who didn't necessarilly make the right decisions.  The company certainly didn't have anyone within to checkup on the consultant with their own research.  These tend to be smaller companies with smaller budgets, staff number in double digits with 7 figure turnovers, these smaller companies are typically my normal client.  They've often been given advice which wasn't exactly long term advice.  My name seems to be getting thrown around as a trouble shooter/fixer.  I'd like the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of fresh projects, but sadly have not reached that reputable stage yet.

It seems rather illogical that you'd refuse to work with a company that 
had been given potentially sub-standard advice, based on what appears to 
be a theological view?   

I'm sure the MySQL folks don't think they are sub-standard.  A fair amount of my
business is "clean up" so if someone said, "we have an app on MySQL that is not
working for us" I would most definitely be interested.  If someone said to me
what DB do I use to build applications, I would say PG.  If then someone says tome that "well we're a MySQL shop" then I would have to hear more because
depending on what they want to do, I might not take on that project.  There is
nothing illogical or theological in that. 

Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Apologies as that's not how I interpreted your email.  My bad on that.

Either that or you have more consulting work than you know what to do 
with, that you can afford to base business decisions on an ideological 
basis.   

This really doesn't make sense.  Are you telling me you are going to accept any
an all work regardless of competency and confidence in that product?  Would you
really build a financial application on MySQL?  We both know that we all have a
certain ideology (read: religion) when it comes to our trade.  To be clear, I'm
not saying anything against someone who would use MySQL for a financial app. 
I'm just saying that I would not (or at least try very hard not to) involve
myself in that project or any other project where I thought there was a bad
design or implementation. 

To a certian extend you're right although if I had something useful to offer to the project, I'd certainly want to be there when (inevitably) someone (MySQL) dropped the ball and make sure PG was right there to pick up the pieces.  I certainly don't have a religion though, I always try to use the right tool for the job at hand.  The bad thing about many advocates in the OS environment is that they have the Linux hammer, and everything they see tends to look like a nail. This is also true for MySQL and many other projects.

When you are a smaller operation your reputation is going to weigh in a lot more
than a larger company.  I do not want my name to be tied to something
sub-standard.  If a consultant values his or her reputation I don't see how youcan NOT consider what products you are willing to put your name on the line for. 

Agreed, but MySQL is not bad for everything, like all software it has a place in the great scheme of things. IMHO it's a perfect way to get your feet wet in the RDBMS world, it's the next step up from Paradox, Access, etc.  How many key applications in a even a large company have you seen using Access,  it's natural project sprawl.

If I chose not to work with companies that used Windows as servers 
(because IMHO, Windows is not a good server environment) my house 
would've been repossessed, and I'd have probably starved by now.

T.   

12 years ago calling myself a consultant one day meant putting in a netware 3.11
server for a bunch of PCs and MACs and pulling coax.  Did I want to do that- I
can't really say because at the time I had to eat.  That for me is on the outer
fringes of this thread.  Few organzations are NOT using Windows somewhere, and
an increasing number of organizations are starting understand OSS solutions.  So
both world are merging so it not about avoiding and one thing.  Its about
picking an choosing your battles. 

Keith C. Perry wrote:
   

The way I look at it is that I probably don't want to deal with a
company that thinks that MySQL on windows is "good environment".