Thread: PostgreSQL vs. Oracle
Hello, Is there somewhere a comprehensive and fair comparison of PostgreSQL to Oracle. We moved three years ago from MySQL to PostgreSQL and now we start to feel that it is time for another move. But is it really? We believe that a fair study would only benefit the users of both database. We have started a small comparison page on the pgaccess wiki - http://www.pgaccess.org/index.php?page=PostgreSQL+vs.+Oracle Please, feel free to contribute with direct comments or with links to appropriate resources. Thank you and all best, Iavor
On 21 Jul 2003 at 11:14, Iavor Raytchev wrote: > We have started a small comparison page on the pgaccess wiki - > > http://www.pgaccess.org/index.php?page=PostgreSQL+vs.+Oracle > > Please, feel free to contribute with direct comments or with links to > appropriate resources. Could you please elaborate on each term as in what do you expect out of that functionality? e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what to expect out of that functionality, how can anybody offer an opinion or material on that? A link explaining what is virtual private database would be great there. Like http://www.oracle-base.com/Articles/8i/VirtualPrivateDatabases(VPD).asp. Looking at it, it is pretty clear that schema can fill large part of this functionality, though there will be separate tables in two different schemas rather than storing it in a single table.. And similarly for other things. If you aer running into problems w.r.t postgresql and looking at migration, I suggest you post your specific problems on lists like general. You might get some more mileage out of existing system. HTH Bye Shridhar -- "Absolutely nothing should be concluded from these figures except thatno conclusion can be drawn from them."(By Joseph L. Brothers, Linux/PowerPC Project)
On 21 Jul 2003 at 11:14, Iavor Raytchev wrote: > We have started a small comparison page on the pgaccess wiki - > > http://www.pgaccess.org/index.php?page=PostgreSQL+vs.+Oracle > > Please, feel free to contribute with direct comments or with links to > appropriate resources. Could you please elaborate on each term as in what do you expect out of that functionality? e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what to expect out of that functionality, how can anybody offer an opinion or material on that? A link explaining what is virtual private database would be great there. Like http://www.oracle-base.com/Articles/8i/VirtualPrivateDatabases(VPD).asp. Looking at it, it is pretty clear that schema can fill large part of this functionality, though there will be separate tables in two different schemas rather than storing it in a single table.. And similarly for other things. If you aer running into problems w.r.t postgresql and looking at migration, I suggest you post your specific problems on lists like general. You might get some more mileage out of existing system. HTH Bye Shridhar -- "World domination. Fast"(By Linus Torvalds)
Shridhar Daithankar wrote: > If you aer running into problems w.r.t postgresql and looking at > migration, I suggest you post your specific problems on lists like > general. You might get some more mileage out of existing system. This isn't always possible. I know cases from personal experience where 'management' (who in many cases are defined as being clueless - see Dilbert) will say things like 'I went to lunch with the Oracle Business Development guy and we are going to migrate over in the next 3 months.' Staff on the front line need amunition to support sane alternative strategies, like not changing something if it works, but externally sourced analysis always reads better to most management. Peter
Hello Shidhar, Thank you for your reply. When we migrated form MySQL to PostgreSQL we did it not in a very rational way. We felt that there is something better and more excellent in PostgreSQL. Then our business grew. I think we could not have done what we did if we would have stayed on MySQL. Now we have the same feeling about Oracle. It has nothing to do with not liking PostgreSQL. It has more to do with climbing the next peak. The possibilities lie beyond. > Could you please elaborate on each term as in what do you expect > out of that functionality? > > e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what > to expect out of that functionality, how can anybody offer > an opinion or material on that? It is exactly what Oracle means by it. We are not starting a war here - but investigating comparisons. My personal goal is to see the difference in features, how the lack of features can be worked around in the application (in both databases) and if missing features are on the PostgreSQL todo list and in what time frame. In the ideal case I would combine all this into a white paper. As I said again - this is an intellectual survey and has nothing to do with being satisfied or not with PostgreSQL. Currently we have no problems with PostgreSQL. Thanks for your comments. I copied your e-mail in the wiki. I hope you do not mind. Best, Iavor
On 21 Jul 2003 at 11:58, Iavor Raytchev wrote: > My personal goal is to see the difference in features, how the lack of > features can be worked around in the application (in both databases) and if > missing features are on the PostgreSQL todo list and in what time frame. I suggest you look at release notes of couple fo releases back as well. That will give you an idea how it is moving. > In the ideal case I would combine all this into a white paper. That would be a great addition to community resources. > As I said again - this is an intellectual survey and has nothing to do with > being satisfied or not with PostgreSQL. Currently we have no problems with > PostgreSQL. Glad to hear that. > Thanks for your comments. I copied your e-mail in the wiki. I hope you do > not mind. no I don't..:-) Bye Shridhar -- A princess should not be afraid -- not with a brave knight to protect her. -- McCoy, "Shore Leave", stardate 3025.3
On Monday 21 July 2003 10:58, Iavor Raytchev wrote: > Hello Shidhar, > > Thank you for your reply. > > When we migrated form MySQL to PostgreSQL we did it not in a very rational > way. We felt that there is something better and more excellent in > PostgreSQL. Then our business grew. I think we could not have done what we > did if we would have stayed on MySQL. Now we have the same feeling about > Oracle. It has nothing to do with not liking PostgreSQL. It has more to do > with climbing the next peak. The possibilities lie beyond. > > > Could you please elaborate on each term as in what do you expect > > out of that functionality? > > > > e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what > > to expect out of that functionality, how can anybody offer > > an opinion or material on that? > > It is exactly what Oracle means by it. We are not starting a war here - but > investigating comparisons. I think the point is that Shridhar, like myself, hadn't come across that term before. Don't forget, the members of a PG list aren't likely to all be Oracle gurus. Likewise, I'm sure an Oracle DBA might find some reference links on PG useful. Little things like good references can make the difference between an interesting document and a valuable one. As regards your topic headings, they're obviously the ones you think your project will find useful, but: Row Level Locking Actually, AFAIK both offer "better than" row-level locking, since both use a variant of MVCC (could be wrong though). Partitioning You can use symlinks to place individual tables/indexes on different drives with PG. You can't do this while PG is running. Someone is working on a more formal partioning system at the moment, so probably available in 7.4.x or 7.5 Virtual Private Database Sorry - like Shridhar I'm not familiar with this. You can probably do something similar with schemas/views/rules etc. Standby databases I'm assuming this is an Oracle term. There are people using standby systems with shared access to a storage device if that's what you mean. Speed I'm not sure general opinion would agree that PG is faster than Oracle. I'm personally not convinced it makes sense to compare speed except for a specific situation. Certainly there will be some situations where PG is faster and others where Oracle is. Other comparisons You might want to link to the conversion documents at http://techdocs.postgresql.org Standards PG tries hard to be standards compliant. Oracle has its own share of wrinkles, and I guess the problem is they can't afford to break backward compatibility. You can find more on partitioning / standby systems by a search in the mailing list archives. It might be interesting to see how you use PG at the present time and what future changes you expect - the "general" list is a good place to discuss that sort of thing. HTH -- Richard Huxton Archonet Ltd
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003, Peter Galbavy wrote: > Shridhar Daithankar wrote: > > If you aer running into problems w.r.t postgresql and looking at > > migration, I suggest you post your specific problems on lists like > > general. You might get some more mileage out of existing system. > > This isn't always possible. I know cases from personal experience where > 'management' (who in many cases are defined as being clueless - see Dilbert) > will say things like 'I went to lunch with the Oracle Business Development > guy and we are going to migrate over in the next 3 months.' > > Staff on the front line need amunition to support sane alternative > strategies, like not changing something if it works, but externally sourced > analysis always reads better to most management. I don't know, I've always found it quite effective to say, "Great, that gives me three months to find another job." :-) I'm not bluffing when I say it, thought, I mean it. If a boss is enough of an idiot to make those decisions without consulting his developers I'd rather find another job.
On 21 Jul 2003 at 22:35, Jochem van Dieten wrote: > Shridhar Daithankar wrote: > > > > e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what to expect out > > of that functionality, how can anybody offer an opinion or material on that? > > > > A link explaining what is virtual private database would be great there. Like > > http://www.oracle-base.com/Articles/8i/VirtualPrivateDatabases(VPD).asp. > > *That* is called a Virtual Private Database? It is just a fancy > way to do row level security on a single table in the database. > That article should be called "How to fake an updateable view > with check option.". Well, no matter how you and me thinks this is not very relevant or of any practical use, tons of people use it/will use it because oracle offers it to them. Sigh... there are quite a lot of things that are not ideal. Definition of ideal is one of them..:-) Bye Shridhar -- First law of debate: Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Shridhar Daithankar wrote: > On 21 Jul 2003 at 22:35, Jochem van Dieten wrote: > > > Shridhar Daithankar wrote: > > > > > > e.g. Virtual private database? What is that? Unless I know what to expect out > > > of that functionality, how can anybody offer an opinion or material on that? > > > > > > A link explaining what is virtual private database would be great there. Like > > > http://www.oracle-base.com/Articles/8i/VirtualPrivateDatabases(VPD).asp. > > > > *That* is called a Virtual Private Database? It is just a fancy > > way to do row level security on a single table in the database. > > That article should be called "How to fake an updateable view > > with check option.". > > Well, no matter how you and me thinks this is not very relevant or of any > practical use, tons of people use it/will use it because oracle offers it to > them. > > Sigh... there are quite a lot of things that are not ideal. Definition of ideal > is one of them..:-) Reading that page, it looks to me as if VPD are just schema sections with security applied. I.e. Postgresql can do that.
> Reading that page, it looks to me as if VPD are just schema sections with > security applied. I.e. Postgresql can do that. Thanks Scott. Noted in the wiki - http://www.pgaccess.org/index.php?page=Virtual+Private+Database Iavor