Thread: PostgreSQL vs. Interbase

Hi there.

I'm currently in serious research on what database to use for a B2B site
which is expected to hold millions of records. I have in so far considered
two open source databases - Interbase and PostgreSQL. With this in mind, I'm
sending this email to both the PostgreSQL and Interbase mailing lists and
also on PHP's. I would appreciate what ever information you can provide.
Thanks :)

My inquiry:

Please discuss as to your point of view the advantage of PostgreSQL over
Interbase and/or vise versa. I'm considering three (3) important points

1.  Speed
2.  Data Reliability
3.  Portability

Your messages will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Arnold,

By reputation PostgreSQL scales better, and the newest release 7.1.1
(released yesterday) is the strongest version of it yet.

Not honestly sure about Interbase though.  It's got a decent reputation,
and apparently is fairly fully featured too.  Some people feel it's
ex-commercial history is a strong point, others seem to feel it's
ex-commercial history means it couldn't compete in that arena.

Some things I know for sure are :

- The PostgreSQL community is very strong, with very knowledgable and
helpful people in it.
- There is very strong support from the PostgreSQL mailing lists
- If you need commercial support, there are a number of organisations
available to provide it, and in good depth, and in a number of countries
- PostgreSQL has a very wide range of platform support
- The PostgreSQL documentation is quite decent as of the 7.1+ releases
- PostgreSQL is known to scale very well under load, especially when
compared to other Open Source databases
- 7.1+  (7.1, 7.1.1) is fully ACID compliant
- Lots of articles, reviews, utilities, tools, installation guides,
tips, etc are available for PostgreSQL around the Net
- PostgreSQL itself is very fully featured, compliant with a lot of the
SQL92 and SQL99 specs, it's Object-Relational, not just Relational too

These are some of the strong points I can think of, there are lots
more.  Not sure about Interbase, and I've also heard something about
Sybase have some terms and conditions for free deployment in some
situations.  Might be worth trying them too.

If it's any help, there also a summary feature list which may be of use
in comparisons at :
http://postgresql.planetmirror.com/features.html

It was recently written and updated by Joel Burton and Peter Eisentraut,
two very active and  knowledgable PostgreSQL guys, so it's definitely
not out-of-date or anything.

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift


Arnold Gamboa wrote:
>
> Hi there.
>
> I'm currently in serious research on what database to use for a B2B site
> which is expected to hold millions of records. I have in so far considered
> two open source databases - Interbase and PostgreSQL. With this in mind, I'm
> sending this email to both the PostgreSQL and Interbase mailing lists and
> also on PHP's. I would appreciate what ever information you can provide.
> Thanks :)
>
> My inquiry:
>
> Please discuss as to your point of view the advantage of PostgreSQL over
> Interbase and/or vise versa. I'm considering three (3) important points
>
> 1.  Speed
> 2.  Data Reliability
> 3.  Portability
>
> Your messages will be greatly appreciated.
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/faq.html

--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
     - Indira Gandhi

On Mon, 7 May 2001, Justin Clift wrote:

> - The PostgreSQL documentation is quite decent as of the 7.1+ releases
>
> If it's any help, there also a summary feature list which may be of use
> in comparisons at :
> http://postgresql.planetmirror.com/features.html
>
> It was recently written and updated by Joel Burton and Peter Eisentraut,
> two very active and  knowledgable PostgreSQL guys, so it's definitely
> not out-of-date or anything.

Active guy Joel Burton here, with a followup to my post a minute ago.



The feature list for PostgreSQL is a good head start at understanding its
features. Similar stuff at www.interbase.com.



MySQL's crash-me is <cynical> a piece of marketing for MySQL that distorts
its lack of support for many critical database features, which promoting
its non-standard syntax </cynical>, but may provide some useful
information about PG v Interbase, as long as you remember two things:

* they haven't updated it for 7.1 yet, which adds many nice features to
PG, including removing row limits and adding full support for outer joins

and

* crash-me reports that both PG and Interbase don't support some things
that both damn well do, so take it with a grain of salt.



and, last, (and I do hate to say this...):

* Interbase's documentation is wonderful. PostgreSQL's is comprehensive,
but IMHO, less organized and comprehensive than Interbase's.


HTH,
--
Joel Burton   <jburton@scw.org>
Director of Information Systems, Support Center of Washington