Re: Slashdot discussion - Mailing list pgsql-general

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000, Lamar Owen wrote:

> And, if most people's experience with the RedHat 5.2 RPM's is what
> they're going on, they need to get with the program -- RH 5.2 shipped
> PostgreSQL *6.3.2* which is absolutely ancient.  Although, at the time,
> 6.3.2 was better than nothing.

Hello Lamar,

'Better than nothing' - hmm...

Perhaps better than MySQL?  Definitely better than PROGRESS which is
what it replaced in my shop.  I have one linux box running Pg up over
190 days - and it gets hammered on daily.  Mind you I don't run RedHat
on production machines - it's a little too cute and a little too unstable.
I use slackware.

Anyway, I have some development boxes using newer versions of Pg
(both FBSD and Linux - even a RedHat workstation) but there is nothing
wrong with 6.3.2.  Sure 7+ boasts more features and better performance
but there is nothing fatally flawed in 6.3.2.  Trust me, 190 days for
a linux box running linux is pretty good.  Especially when the users
are social workers - afraid of technology and overly fond of abusing the
text data type.

6.3.2 is certainly 'better than nothing' and, aside from slow vacuums,
I have no complaints.  Of course, I have the old logo taped to the cover
of my notebook:  a printout of the various pg manuals and Bruce's book.
Being a bit of a blockhead I kind of fancy to exploding bricks.  ;-)

BTW, re the slashdot business...

Maybe MySQL is 'perceived' as easier to use than Pg - like Access (Abcess?)
is perceived as being friendlier than a real database.  But the reality
is that MySQL always struck me as being more of a toy than an industrial
strength db - and installation isn't really that much easier.

I still recall my first build with Pg.  The docs were very good and I
had it up and running on my first attempt.  The only difficulty I had
was determining what IF to use.  I started with ecpg then switched to
DBI.  I think now I'd like to have a crack on the new and improved ecpg.
I see that Michael's done alot of work - of course it was always 'better
than nothing'!  ;-)

Cheers,
Tom
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