Re: PostgreSQL still for Linux only? - Mailing list pgsql-general

Okay, I'll split them with you.  I remember the Groton Database Corp. of
Groton Connecticut, whose marketing people didn't like the sound of
*Groton*, and renamed the company Interbase and the product InterBase (note
caps).  Ashton Tate came along years later and bought the company to
increase their own salability to Borland.  I bought InterBase from
Interbase Corp. in 1991 for HP-UX.

Rick



                     
                      Edwin New
                     
                      <edwin_new@toll.com.au>        To:       pgsql-general@postgresql.org
                     
                      Sent by:                       cc:
                     
                      pgsql-general-owner@pos        Subject:  Re: [GENERAL] PostgreSQL still for Linux only?
                     
                      tgresql.org
                     

                     

                     
                      03/09/2005 12:02 AM
                     

                     

                     




I don't want to split hairs, but wasn't Firebird originally Interbase?  If
so, you'll find it was originally a *nix product before it was a Windows
database (back in the Ashton-Tate days for those with long memories).


Edwin New.


-----Original Message-----
From: Uwe C. Schroeder [mailto:uwe@oss4u.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 March 2005 3:49 PM
To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] PostgreSQL still for Linux only?


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On Tuesday 08 March 2005 07:24 pm, Tope Akinniyi wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am wondering at this display of extreme Linux mentality being displayed

> by the 'top bras' of the PostgreSQL community.  And I ask, are we
> encouraging Windows use of PostgreSQL at all?
>
> Take a look at tools being rolled out at PgFoundry on daily basis; all
for
> Linux except the Windows installer.  I ask myself what is being done to
> encourage PostgreSQL Windows users.  Nothing is available to them except
> the Database and PgAdmin.  No replication tool, no this, no that.


To be honest - I wouldn't encourage the use of PostgreSQL on Win.
Neither would I for any database or data warehouse application (which
probably
is why SAP put onto their website that they prefer linux to windows
platforms).
I think it could even damage the quite good reputation of PostgreSQL - if
your
windows box crashes and takes the DB with it - most likely it's not the
fault
of a lousy OS, nor the fault of an incompetent sysadmin who forgot to make
backups - it will be this "shitty" free database system that's to blame.


I wrote quite some software that uses postgresql - never would I tell any
customer that he could now run it on windows. As a matter of fact I put
code
like:


if os="win" {
    errormessage("this software is not ported to windows yet");
    exit(99);
}


into the startup routine - just to make it impossible for the customer to
run
it on windows.

> I was troubled when CommandPrompt, the leading Windows support provider
> responded to a post that their plPHP is for Linux only.
>
> Sorry for this:  Firebird provides equal tools for Linux and Windows
users.
>  We are not the one to tell the Windows users whether they need them.


Firebird was a DOS ISAM DB. It just made it's way to *nix a couple years
ago.


> Whether Windows is bad or good; Linux is the angel and Windows the devil
is
> not the issue here. PostgreSQL has gone the Windows way and must not be
> shown to be deficient.


The problem is, that it's a question of perception. Most windows fans don't

see that "their" OS is pretty instable. So it's not a question if the
community can do anything to make PostgreSQL look deficient - it's a
question
of what people do with it on Win. I had a similar case recently with a
customer: His MS Office suite crashed at least 3 times a day. So I switched

him to OpenOffice. Now OO crashed once after a month of perfect operation -

guess what, the customer is back to MS Office because OO crashed on him and

MS has this new version that's sooo much better. Call it dumb - but that's
how a lot of people are. Well, he paid a couple $k to get new licenses and
is
back where he was a month ago.


> I am not holding anybody responsible, but I think we need to do a massive

> re-orientation of the community not to carry the Linux-Windows game too
> far.


It's just a fact: any unix is a better platform for databases than windows.

Windows was designed (and mostly still is) as a Desktop operating system -
and it's fairly good on the desktop. Never trust a server that needs a
mouse
attached to operate properly. Unix was designed with scalability, stability

and multiuser-operation in mind - and that's what it's good at. I wouldn't
want my payroll on a windows box - much less my company data.


        UC


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