FAQ or so? - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Hi folks,

    maybe is this a so long debated subject.. But maybe is it a good
starting point to refresh all the demonstrations points of PostgreSQL
advocacy or PostgreSQL-vs-xx arguments. It may be usefull for me (and I
believe other people here) to be able to argue on various points just
like the eternal « what about the responsabilities issues ? » or « who
will be responsible for xxx ? » (that's my discussion today, but it can
be another-day/thread for other points).

    While discussing with other IT-people in different country (US, CA,
FR), the responsability issue is always put on the top of the problems
of IT-directors each time you talk about PostgreSQL migration. This kind
of problem is now more sensible than in the past because, from my point
of view, there is lesser technical problem to migrate to PG now (I mean
there's plenty of (very good) technical reasons to migrate from an
another proprietary/opensource database management system).

    The problem is more on the policy side (or «politics» as we use to
say in France), and I would like to have some others arguments than,
just contact a service co. to get some support/responsibility for
PostgreSQL. Any answer I get back from this arguments is that there's
_no_ real editor to put the blame (i.e. get money back) on. I'm not
quite experienced on this field, but I heard a lot of people here in
France saying that End User License tells users that the editor is not
responsible of malfunctions or deasaster liable to the software they are
using. I can argue this, but people still believe that accepting such
licences give them the ability to lead the  editor to the court.

    More generaly, this is an OpenSource question. But PostgreSQL case
is more sensible from my point of view because, large scale migration is
about to be done in France (on the country administration side btw) and
no direction or no project manager wants to handle (or endorse) the
responsability of PostgreSQL migration or choice (whereas they could
handle it technically).

    My question is, how can I refine my arguments, do you have others
arguments I can use? What could we say about responsabilities issue
regarding to  PG? How can I better advocate on PG -more generally- ?

    I hope it won't be an off topic discussion (well, I would'nt post
this message to -hackers ;) ). Moreover, please "pardon my French".

    Thanks a lot for any answer :)

--
Jean-Christophe Arnu
Secretary
PostgreSQLFr - French PostgreSQL Association