Ted,
> http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/printer/19752/
I posted the following using their online response form. Reporters are
usually glad to augment their future articles if you point them to a
souce of information. The article probably only covered MySQL because
that's the only OS database that anyone at NewsFactor knew anything
about.
More that that, this article points out the reason that we need press
releases.
My letter below.
"Editors,
I appreciated Ms. Lyman's recent article on Open Source databases.
It's gratifying to see the business press paying more attention to the
alternatives to expensive proprietary databases.
However, I feel that the article focused a bit too much on MySQL to the
exclusion of all other Open Source databases. You are probably not
aware that PostgreSQL, SAP DB, and Phoenix all have substantial
installed user bases, and offer quite a range of features for different
users.
Particularly, the comparison of Oracle with MySQL is a bit uninformed.
MySQL was designed to be a "lightweight" and fast database, and not to
compete with Oracle. PostgreSQL and SAP DB are much more comparable to
Oracle in their features and scalability. This sort of comparison
does a disservice, both to MySQL and to the other Open Source
databases.
I realize that information on Open Source software can often be hard to
find, and difficult to understand. That's why the PostgreSQL advocacy
team, led by Justin Clift (justin@postgresql.org), put up this site for
PostgreSQL information:
http://advocacy.postgresql.org
Please feel free to contact the advocacy team if you need information
on PostgreSQL for future articles.
Thanks for your attention,
Josh Berkus
Volunteer, PostgreSQL Project"
