Thread: Updated Press Release Draft

Folks,

Ok, now that we have real release notes, I've done a re-draft:
http://pgfoundry.org/docman/view.php/1000047/233/release.txt
... or in CVS, of course.

Please note that we will have an extended press page with even more material.
I'm working on that and should have it by this weekend.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco

Josh,

thanks for writing and sharing, that really looks fine and Wow!

I have 2 recommendations:

1st) I really would recommend to put the "New tools and features" first and the "Cutting-edge features" second. Reason: PostgreSQL mindshare with cuttting-edge-people like scientists is allready rather big. We can gain more growth from the business mindshare, and all the important buzzwords are within "new tools": OLTP, data warehousing, multi-processor scaling, standy database.

With those cutting-edge-features first we risk the PHBs to stop reading at "generalized inverted indexes", because its an unknown word. The cutting-edge crowd on the other hand is used to read complete and quick :)

2nd)

SQL 2003 Features:  PostgreSQL, well known for standards compliance,
has added syntax for several features introduced in the ANSI SQL 2003
specification, including: statistical aggregates, multi-row VALUE 

statments, UPDATE RETURNING and multi-column aggregates.

That makes it sound in my ears as if these "several features" are the first steps to SQL 2003 PostgreSQL has done, when in fact those are just some steps to get from 85% compliance to 87% (numbers estimated)


Harald

--
GHUM Harald Massa
persuadere et programmare
Harald Armin Massa
Reinsburgstraße 202b
70197 Stuttgart
0173/9409607
-
Python: the only language with more web frameworks than keywords.
-- Harald A. Massa, December 2005
http://groups.google.de/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/285b9adeec188fb2

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Ok, now that we have real release notes, I've done a re-draft:
> http://pgfoundry.org/docman/view.php/1000047/233/release.txt
> ... or in CVS, of course.

Well done, Josh!

> object-relational database management system. This 14th public release
> adds features, maturity, and performance requested by business users,
> delivering manageability comparable to leading proprietary database
> systems.  Version 8.2 is expected to drive even more migrations
> toward PostgreSQL.


IMHO 'proprietary' is not the only key... probably instead using
'high-end' or a better synonym which stress out PostgreSQL's ability to
compete with Oracle & Co. and to replace them in a growing number of
production environments?

I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be mentioned
after the buzz-word-compliant features.

It would be fine, if we could give some figures or a number to underlay
the performance message, although figures are relative.

Ani

Anastasios Hatzis wrote:
> Josh Berkus wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> Ok, now that we have real release notes, I've done a re-draft:
>> http://pgfoundry.org/docman/view.php/1000047/233/release.txt
>> ... or in CVS, of course.
>
> Well done, Josh!
>
>> object-relational database management system. This 14th public release
>> adds features, maturity, and performance requested by business users,
>> delivering manageability comparable to leading proprietary database
>> systems.  Version 8.2 is expected to drive even more migrations toward
>> PostgreSQL.
>
>
> IMHO 'proprietary' is not the only key... probably instead using
> 'high-end' or a better synonym which stress out PostgreSQL's ability to
> compete with Oracle & Co. and to replace them in a growing number of
> production environments?

The word that we are avoiding but need to use anyway is *enterprise* ;)

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake



--

    === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
    Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
              http://www.commandprompt.com/

Josh,

> The word that we are avoiding but need to use anyway is *enterprise*

I can't help but think, though:

"Scotty, what's our current transaction rate?"

"Captain, I'm givin' it all I can, but she canna handle any more
connections!"

Still, if that's the *only* place we use the word in the release, it's not
that bad.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Josh,
>
>> The word that we are avoiding but need to use anyway is *enterprise*
>
> I can't help but think, though:
>
> "Scotty, what's our current transaction rate?"
>
> "Captain, I'm givin' it all I can, but she canna handle any more
> connections!"
>
> Still, if that's the *only* place we use the word in the release, it's not
> that bad.
>

Hey... let's make it an action item.

Joshua D. Drake



--

    === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
    Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
              http://www.commandprompt.com/

josh@agliodbs.com (Josh Berkus) writes:
> Josh,
>
>> The word that we are avoiding but need to use anyway is *enterprise*
>
> I can't help but think, though:
>
> "Scotty, what's our current transaction rate?"
>
> "Captain, I'm givin' it all I can, but she canna handle any more
> connections!"
>
> Still, if that's the *only* place we use the word in the release, it's not
> that bad.

All I can do is add a suitable .signature...
--
(reverse (concatenate 'string "ofni.secnanifxunil" "@" "enworbbc"))
"Linux  is not  ready  for  the Enterprise.   There  is not a   single
voice-controlled app for any of the  mission critical functions of the
Enterprise. Conspicuously absent  are warp  core control, phaser  bank
activation,  interstellar  navigation,  transporter operation, and the
all-important  self-destruct  sequence. Until  these and  thousands of
other important apps are  written and deployed, Linux  will just be  a
toy in the Enterprise." -- Kevin Novak, Network Computing Magazine

Anastasios, Harald,

> I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be mentioned
> after the buzz-word-compliant features.

... hmmm, problem is, that Dtrace is actually one of our most
press-attractive features, right now.  I don't want that to be
next-to-last in the lineup.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Anastasios, Harald,
>
> > I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be mentioned
> > after the buzz-word-compliant features.
>
> ... hmmm, problem is, that Dtrace is actually one of our most
> press-attractive features, right now.  I don't want that to be
> next-to-last in the lineup.

Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That doesn't make
it a very significant feature.

--
  Bruce Momjian   bruce@momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB    http://www.enterprisedb.com

  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Josh Berkus wrote:
> > Anastasios, Harald,
> >
> > > I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be
> > > mentioned after the buzz-word-compliant features.
> >
> > ... hmmm, problem is, that Dtrace is actually one of our most
> > press-attractive features, right now.  I don't want that to be
> > next-to-last in the lineup.
>
> Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That doesn't
> make it a very significant feature.

It only works on one platform in an unreleased version.  So in practice,
it nearly doesn't really work at all.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

Bruce,

> Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That doesn't make
> it a very significant feature.

I'm talking about from a press perspective.  DTrace has gotten a lot of
ink lately, and is effectively a "buzzword" reporters on the tech beat
will recognize.

--Josh

On Sep 21, 2006, at 4:45 PM, Josh Berkus wrote:
>> I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be
>> mentioned
>> after the buzz-word-compliant features.
>
> ... hmmm, problem is, that Dtrace is actually one of our most
> press-attractive features, right now.  I don't want that to be
> next-to-last in the lineup.

The problem is that a whole lot of folks have no clue what Dtrace is.
It'd be better to say something like "l33t, ub3r powerful monitoring
capability!" (ok, maybe not...)

Even better would be some nice pretty pictures of some nice pretty
monitoring tools. At least that'd get the PHBs more excited...
--
Jim Nasby                                    jimn@enterprisedb.com
EnterpriseDB      http://enterprisedb.com      512.569.9461 (cell)

> > Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That
> doesn't
> > make it a very significant feature.
>
> I'm talking about from a press perspective.  DTrace has gotten a
> lot of ink lately, and is effectively a "buzzword" reporters on the
> tech beat will recognize.

Really? I was just about to comment that "nobody except insiders really
know what DTrace is".. Are you sure you're not reading internal Sun
magazines? ;-)

FWIW, a quick search at swedens largest tech-news/press-release site
shows up *a single* hit for DTrace this year. It's the press release for
WSJs award they received.
FYI, a postgresql search for the same time gives 20.

If I search a different "business news" (not-just-tech-news-but-some)
site, I don't get any hits at all.

//Magnus

Magnus Hagander wrote:
> > > Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That
> > doesn't
> > > make it a very significant feature.
> >
> > I'm talking about from a press perspective.  DTrace has gotten a
> > lot of ink lately, and is effectively a "buzzword" reporters on the
> > tech beat will recognize.
>
> Really? I was just about to comment that "nobody except insiders really
> know what DTrace is".. Are you sure you're not reading internal Sun
> magazines? ;-)
>
> FWIW, a quick search at swedens largest tech-news/press-release site
> shows up *a single* hit for DTrace this year. It's the press release for
> WSJs award they received.
> FYI, a postgresql search for the same time gives 20.
>
> If I search a different "business news" (not-just-tech-news-but-some)
> site, I don't get any hits at all.

Ditto.  From my experience, the people who talk about DTrace most are
Sun employees.  In fact, I think they take training to find out how to
work DTrace into every conversation.  :-)

--
  Bruce Momjian   bruce@momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB    http://www.enterprisedb.com

  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>> Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That
>> doesn't
>>> make it a very significant feature.
>> I'm talking about from a press perspective.  DTrace has gotten a
>> lot of ink lately, and is effectively a "buzzword" reporters on the
>> tech beat will recognize.
>
> Really? I was just about to comment that "nobody except insiders really
> know what DTrace is".. Are you sure you're not reading internal Sun
> magazines? ;-)

Unless I can use Dtrace on standard Linux or Win32 (god help us) then
Dtrace is pretty much irrelevant. Solaris is easily our least deployed
platform. Why are we focusing so much on a Sun technology?

Yes I know that it runs on FreeBSD (if is is sparc). Yes I know it will
be included in Leopard (which is not out yet).


Joshua D. Drake



--

    === The PostgreSQL Company: Command Prompt, Inc. ===
Sales/Support: +1.503.667.4564 || 24x7/Emergency: +1.800.492.2240
    Providing the most comprehensive  PostgreSQL solutions since 1997
              http://www.commandprompt.com/

Bruce,


> Ditto.  From my experience, the people who talk about DTrace most are
> Sun employees.  In fact, I think they take training to find out how to
> work DTrace into every conversation.  :-)

but I hear ... oh, wait.  I'm surrounded by Sun employees.  Point taken.

Dropped back to the end of the release.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco

Hi,

Well, if it sells well, how much work is there to get it into other
platforms as well? Or is it just that the solarsystem is too old, and
the other ones are no longer interested of these ancient systems?

The idea is that if people are interested about something, if it does
not cost a lot of work then we can perhaps do it just to make the
publicity. Not that it would really be needed. (Which I guess is quite
often the case with the commercial solutions.)

Rgs,

Jussi




Josh Berkus wrote:
> Bruce,
>
>
>
>> Ditto.  From my experience, the people who talk about DTrace most are
>> Sun employees.  In fact, I think they take training to find out how to
>> work DTrace into every conversation.  :-)
>>
>
> but I hear ... oh, wait.  I'm surrounded by Sun employees.  Point taken.
>
> Dropped back to the end of the release.
>
>

Jussi,

> Well, if it sells well, how much work is there to get it into other
> platforms as well? Or is it just that the solarsystem is too old, and
> the other ones are no longer interested of these ancient systems?

Within a few months, DTrace will be supported on Solaris, OSX and FreeBSD.
However, those *are* all minority platforms for PostgreSQL.

--
--Josh

Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL @ Sun
San Francisco

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Jussi,
>
> > Well, if it sells well, how much work is there to get it into other
> > platforms as well? Or is it just that the solarsystem is too old, and
> > the other ones are no longer interested of these ancient systems?
>
> Within a few months, DTrace will be supported on Solaris, OSX and FreeBSD.
> However, those *are* all minority platforms for PostgreSQL.

You could as well claim that SystemTap will support userspace tracking
in a few months, and with that you'll get support for an equivalent
mechanism on Linux.

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Josh Berkus wrote:
>
>> Anastasios, Harald,
>>
>>
>>> I aggree with Harald that the cutting edge features should be mentioned
>>> after the buzz-word-compliant features.
>>>
>> ... hmmm, problem is, that Dtrace is actually one of our most
>> press-attractive features, right now.  I don't want that to be
>> next-to-last in the lineup.
>>
>
> Uh, Dtrace only works on one, at best two platforms.  That doesn't make
> it a very significant feature.
>
>
All this talk of "features"!!  What are the benefits?   20% faster
transactional speed, which saves about $2,335. in wasted time over a
single month is due to super duper feature x.

Michael,



--
GHUM Harald Massa
persuadere et programmare
Harald Armin Massa
Reinsburgstraße 202b
70197 Stuttgart
0173/9409607
-
Python: the only language with more web frameworks than keywords.
-- Harald A. Massa, December 2005
http://groups.google.de/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/285b9adeec188fb2