Re: Oracle and Postgresql - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Kevin Hunter
Subject Re: Oracle and Postgresql
Date
Msg-id 48BB040E.3040108@earlham.edu
Whole thread Raw
In response to Oracle and Postgresql  (M2Y <mailtoyahoo@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: Oracle and Postgresql  ("Richard Broersma" <richard.broersma@gmail.com>)
Re: Oracle and Postgresql  (0123 zyxw <0123zyxw@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-general
At 2:29pm -0400 on Sun, 31 Aug 2008, Srinivas wrote:
> I want to compare both of them in terms of functionality, performance,
> advantages and disadvantages.

If you publish anything, watch out for the Oracle licensing no-nos.
Specifically, I believe they disallow certain comparisons.  I believe
performance is one of them.

> Why most enterprises prefer Oracle than Postgres even though it is
> free and has a decent enough user community.

Many reasons, some legit, some not.  I expect a Greg or two will
seriously add to and correct this list, but:

1. Oracle was "first", and has vendor lock-in momentum.
2. Oracle is still the "de facto" in terms of
   speed/performance/concurrency (but that gap is closing fast)
3. Oracle has application lock-in as well.  There've more than a few
   threads on this list regarding which applications.
4. Oracle is company-backed, so there is ostensibly "someone to blame"
   or sue if something goes wrong.  Don't underestimate the managerial
   "need" for blame.
5. Influencing individuals within a company may prefer it *because* it's
   expensive, as it helps "justify" their higher salary.
6. Mucho better advertising to the right people.  Much harder for an
   open source project to fund advertising to the same level.
7. Though I don't personally buy it, I have heard others complain
   loudly that there is no print-version of Postgres documentation.

There's a starting list.

Kevin

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