Why new users come to PostgreSQL (IMHO) - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Le 12/09/2012 00:01, Robert Bernier a écrit :
> It appears the mood is changing out there in database world and not
> just slashdot:
>
> http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/09/10/2220202/postgresql-92-out-with-greatly-improved-scalability
>
>
>
> I don't think I've ever seen this much positive feeling about
> postgres.

+1

> Maybe it's the industry getting tired of Oracle,

They do. I see here a lots of migrations or professionals willing to
do so. And that's not only on the public sector, and most of the time,
for critical matters.

It's most of the time due to Oracle's princing and sales methods.
PostgreSQL is, at first, judged like a "cheap" database.

Once the customers use PostgreSQL, they stay with it for all other
reasons, like:
* not having to ask companies'buyers for more licences
* flexibility
* extensibility
* not-a-blackbox (usefull logs, and nothing like "call metalink if you
wanna know about a023c231f or ORA-600 stuff)
* extensive, comprehensive and usefull documentation
* etc (we all know here that list)

.. and they understand that coming to PostgreSQL is nothing cheap,
just because:
* training costs
* consultancy costs
* migration costs (when needed, most of the time, they let version N
die an re-code version N+1 with PostgreSQL)
* support costs (when the community support is not sufficient in terms
of SLA for example (yes it's not about knowledge but more like insurance))

But they still stay with PostgreSQL because costs tends to lower with
time, when they do feel stronger with PostgreSQL (knowledge++,
external help--), and, first, because all the advantages it has! :-)

> maybe it's NOSQL letting down one too many people.

Thats not what prevails IMHO. Or should I say "not yet". Yes, NOSQL is
on the cutting-edge now and lots of people **talk** about it. Few
implement it really (I didn't say "nobody", I have examples of great
usages of NOSQL where it is a real solution to a specific need).

So my bet here is that PostgreSQL arrives really on the right time
(marketting/sales would say the «time to market» is good).

Now our users will have the choice to NOT use another rdbms
(NOSQL=rdbms, really? :) to do some NOSQL, since PostgreSQL can, at
least, let them start some NOSQL-ish applications without installing
anything else.

> Somebody wrote that a lot of new users were discovering postgres,
> looks like there's something to it.

This is the result of many great efforts from different people. It
wasn't easy and took long time to be achieved... Thanks to everybody
on this list for that:

1/ IMHO, all the PUGS, national or multinational PostgreSQL usergroups
do there a really GREAT job. I participated in lots of pgDays and
similar meetings, and talked with lots of newcomers. Those events
bring PostgreSQL under the light, where it has to be. I really hope
we'll continue having some "newbie" or "newcomer" tracks/talks in
those events, since quite a lot of people coming to those events don't
know even what PostgreSQL is capable of !

2/ Also, translators do a real great job. A RDBMS is really something
technicaly difficult to understand. If you add the language barrier to
it, it becomes completely unreachable for lots of users. So, with
translators doing such a great job translating "the" doc and doing so
much great articles, this lowers the difficulty, since the technical
problems are explained in the mother tongue of the newcomer.

3/ Companies around PostgreSQL do a lot of professional communications
on the internet and magazines, etc.. Pro users have now a real good
offer, in many languages, places and also company sizes. From the
"unipersonal company" to the "multinational company", every pro user
can find the right company for its need. This is something quite new.
It wasn't like that like 10 years ago, and this started like what.. 5
years? That's nothing compared to the choice of a RDBMS in companies:
usually the choice of "the" RDBMS of a company is done for 20 years.
You just can't imagine how many customers come to us with a
20-years-old usage of Oracle or Informix or... etc... Our art there is
convince them that PostgreSQL is no revolution, what's good for Oracle
is also for PostgreSQL, for example (recycle knowledge :)

4/ not-only-mailing-list. This is an aspect too. What's not on the web
now doesn't exist I fear. Having the wiki up, the git... Thanks to the
PG admin guys, you rock... So many PostgreSQL.<my_country_extension>
websites helps a lot too (since this is directly linked to point 2/
too). There are so much blogs about PostgreSQL now, and of great
quality. We're also present in many other medias like Twitter and so
on. This are ways for the newcomers to come to our community. If you
don't see light thru the windows, you don't enter. So, more light
people ! :)


Sorry for being this long, I just wanted to know if those toughts
would be shared or not by you. So, hoping to read from you :D

> Robert Bernier rbernier@mediosystems.com http://mediosystems.com
>
>
>


- --
Jean-Paul Argudo
www.PostgreSQL.(fr|eu)
www.Dalibo.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAlBQPXoACgkQ+Vr/BD3wuUR+UQCg2io2PrcwSwCAC4iHsRe2RPcU
KJ4An0YJPhQcD9NGxW0wG5xnZV63pRT/
=Go7L
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----