On this first day of the month, I thought it might be interesting
to re-visit the conventional wisdom about postgres vs mysql.
Do these seem like fair observations?
Storage engines - Advantage Postgres for having far more available.
Postgre has such a wide range of storage engines to choose from --
ranging from whatever proprietary backend Yahoo uses,
to Fujitsu's proprietary storage engine; to PowerGres Plus's
proprietary storage engine; to Netezza's hardware accelerated
storage engine. In contrast, MySQL only has a few to choose from.
Broad Developer base - Advantage MySQL for having a more distributed team.
Postgres developers seem to be concentrated in a handful of companies.
After various acquisitions, MySQL developers are scattered to the four winds.
Large company support - Advantage Postgres for having larger companies support it.
Fujitsu ($46 billion 2009 revenue; 185,000
employees) much bigger than that little company that bought
whomever bought MySQL ($23 billion revenue; 73000 employees).
Any more?
