Duncan,
MySQL is more popular but I've always regarded it as a bit lightweight. I'm
told that this is no longer the case with 5.0. Why choose Postgres over
MySQL 5.0?
There are a big bunch of arguments that I would present if on a paid consulting contract :)
But for free:
a) PostgreSQL has BSD licence, MySQL GPL or commercial. Please consult you legal advisor for differences.
b) PostreSQL is known for being correct, robust and trustworthy for years. "Users data is sacred" is the mantra of every postmaster process. Since 8.0, 8.1 and the upcoming 8.2, PostgreSQL is additionally known to be exceptionally fast.
MySQL is known to be fast for simple queries since years; and with 5.0 on some storage engines there is announced correctness as spelled with ACID.
My personal decision: To believe in correctness and to build trust I need time and history. To check speed I run benchmarks, which complete in minutes.
Harald
--
GHUM Harald Massa
persuadere et programmare
Harald Armin Massa
Reinsburgstraße 202b
70197 Stuttgart
0173/9409607
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