Re: [GENERAL] Platform Availability - Mailing list pgsql-general

Francois,

When you mention that the client and server must run on several platforms
you need to clarify what you intend to use as a client, and server.

PostgreSQL is SQL-compliant server software. It runs fine on various
Linux/BSD/UNIX platforms as well as Windows NT (don't know about
Win2K). You connect to it over the network from a remote client or locally
on the host machine.

As for the client, you need to supply that separately. You can have
applications written with the various libraries (C, Java, Python, PHP3),
you can use something like pgaccess, a UNIX-based Access workalike. Or you
can use the Insight ODBC driver on Windows to connect it with various
Windows-based application (I did a demo project with MS-Access97
connecting to PostgreSQL on BSD with ODBC -- worked OK).

Can PostgreSQL handle the load? I can't say from personal experience, as
I'm just starting my own project with it. But if you look at the projects
page on www.pgsql.com (http://www.pgsql.com/register/) you'll get an idea
of the scope of databases. From anecdotal evidence and one benchmark
published in "Building Database Applications on the Web using PHP3", Craig
Hilton and Jeff Willis, it appears that PostgreSQL is slower with small
databases, but handles large ones without the degradation that something
like MySQL would see. The PostgreSQL developers also offer a commercial
support plan, which is nice to know if you're trying to convince
management types who choke on the idea of free software.

Ciao
 --Louis  <louis@bertrandtech.on.ca>

Louis Bertrand       http://www.bertrandtech.on.ca/
Bertrand Technical Services, Bowmanville, ON, Canada

OpenBSD: Secure by default.  http://www.openbsd.org/

On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Francois Wirth wrote:

> Hi,
>
> We are looking for a client side database in our client-server architecture.
> Presently we are managing large volumes of data on the file-system, but it
> would be preferable to have a client database, which could handle the data
> and manage it more efficiently. Is Postgresql a viable option (ignoring
> platform dependencies) in this scenario?
>
> The database must be a free, open-source database which is cross-platform.
> We are looking especially at Linux and Windows 95/98/NT/2000. The database
> (server and client) must be able to run on these platforms.
>
> In the documentation we find that Postgresql runs on NT and only the client
> works on Windows95/98. Is there a chance that the server can run on 95/98 or
> does it need a big change in the code to do that?
>
> Has it also been tested on Windows2000?
>
> We are new and totally unfamiliar with Postgresql and your assistance will
> be appreciated.
>
> ************
>
>
>