Re: FAQ or so? - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Mitch Pirtle m'expliquait  (le 23.02.2005 16:24):

>On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 09:32:18 +0100, Jean-Christophe Arnu <jx@tuxfarm.org> wrote:
>
>
>>    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- ?
>>
>>
>
>A very good exercise would be to search for proof that someone
>successfully took Oracle/Microsoft/IBM to court for losing critical
>data in their database.
>
    Well, first of all, thank you for all your replies, I thought my
questions were not so interesting and I discover that people here have
lot of saying on this :). Thanks for your help.

    When I expose this kind of arguments (as I did actually for some of
my «wanna-have-responsible» people) notabely about the responsabilities,
they reply that having a responsible is just what they need. Not for
putting problems to court or asking why this happened (even they do ask
for it), but to have a company name whereas if they take the
responsability of choosing a specific Open Source DB Solution they
(personnaly) are responsible for it. I think it's also a "psychological"
problem. People doesn't want (cowardness regarding to their carreer in
public or private area) to take the risk of making choices that could
make them appear as only responsible as person. A better choice is a
choice where these people are only a node not a leaf (tree view) so that
they can tell that they were confident in xxx editor's
commercial/technical "maked-up front-end". I believe there's educational
actions the community can take or build to help them to make the step.
    As a precise exemple, I had a not so short discussion with
technician from my government who were ready to use and promote
PostgreSQL use in some critical applications (flooding prevention,
that's my business field). The problem where upper in their hierarchy. I
felt that they had problems with defending PostgreSQL choice against
more commercialy-shinning-bright solutions (Oracle, not to mention it).
And the problem for the head of their staff is (well the support, but
the arguments you gave me may be a solution), in case of problem, how
would I be able to justify their choice if the database system is
involved. Be sure even a government would not put Oracle to court (they
have no time, money for this and doesn't aim to), they only want excuses
I think. I might be wrong but I don't see how it could be anything else !
    As a matter of fact, I would like to propose ready-to-use solutions
to these people/technicians to help advocate PG to their hierarchy....
If I could, I would explain this directely to the guys who are
controlling decision processes... but I'm not introduced there.

    Once again, thank you for your replies. :) (and once again, sorry if
I'm not as clear as I would/had to)

--
Jean-Christophe Arnu
PostgreSQLFr - Secretary
French community