On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Thomas Løcke <thomas.granvej6@gmail.com> wrote:
> Anybody know of any recent comparisons made between the two?
>
> I'm in the process of buying a new telephony related software suite,
> and I'm getting mixed advice. Some say that MSSQL is _much_
> better/faster than PostgreSQL, and others say the opposite.
>
> The vendor is more or less indifferent, with a small plus to the
> Microsoft solution because, well, they are a Microsoft shop. The
> sales-people all bang on about MSSQL being the superior choice, and
> PostgreSQL being a "toy compared to the Microsoft RDBMS". The tech
> people though are divided into three groups: One group says the two
> systems are more or less equal, another group who says the Microsoft
> database is superior and finally a group who speaks highly of
> PostgreSQL.
>
> I've not been able to convince them to send me some actual benchmark
> numbers, which actually should turn on quite a few alarms, come to
> think about it. :o)
>
> Maybe you guys are aware of some recent generic tests/comparisons
> between the two systems?
most comparisons you see are going to be feature checklists of no real
value. what really matters is how you are going to access the
database and what you are going to do with it. if you are going to
primarily use microsoft tools (c#/visual studio/reporting services)
you are probably going to be better off with sql server. these
technologies integrate better with sql server.
if you are writing your client applications in jdbc/php/etc, your
database choice is a wash in terms of connectivity. postgresql with
its bsd license and strong open source pedigree has a lot of
advantages, so lean postgres but keep ms in mind if you have all
microsoft servers and/or ms administrators.
if you are writing stuff in C/C++, doing significant coding INSIDE the
database (pl/pgsql, C, etc) and/or think of the database as a self
contained development environment, then postgresql is definitely the
right choice. our C interface (both libpq and internal) is excellent,
variety of server side programming options is second to none, and
postgres's flexible type system is fantastic and capable of doing all
kinds of things that bend the rules of what a database is 'supposed to
do'.
also, spend some time reviewing the postgresql mailing lists, and note
the quality and quantity of responses you get to difficult questions.
we are helpful bunch :-)
merlin
