Thread: Firebird vrs Postgresql

Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Erick Dennis
Date:
Hello,

had Somebody compared Postgresql vrs Firebird? What is the main
diferent between this DBs? performance? support? flexibility?.

Best Regards!

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
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=86sd
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----


Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
"Dann Corbit"
Date:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erick Dennis [mailto:edennis@rootshell.be]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 1:27 PM
> To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: [GENERAL] Firebird vrs Postgresql
>
>
> Hello,
>
> had Somebody compared Postgresql vrs Firebird? What is the main
> diferent between this DBs? performance? support? flexibility?.
>>
Biggest similarity:
Open source

Biggest difference:
License type (Firebird is commercial)

Performance:
No idea.  Here is a simple test someone did:
http://php.weblogs.com/oracle_mysql_performance
<<

Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Alvaro Herrera
Date:
On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 10:26:54PM +0200, Erick Dennis wrote:

> had Somebody compared Postgresql vrs Firebird? What is the main
> diferent between this DBs? performance? support? flexibility?.

I've heard from two different and unrelated sources that Firebird
corrupted data for them; the only way out was with backups.  They didn't
have problems with PostgreSQL, so I guess that make it unlikely that the
problem was hardware issues.

I'm also told that Firebird's numerical datatypes handling is horrible.
I don't have personal experience with it though.

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[a]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"Crear es tan dificil como ser libre" (Elsa Triolet)

Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
"Derek Hamilton"
Date:
I'm not sure this is still the case, but I recently chose PostgreSQL over
Firebird because Firebird requires direct access to the database file.
There is no way to access it via TCP/IP with drivers, etc.  That killed
Firebird in my mind.

Derek

----- Original Message -----
From: "Erick Dennis" <edennis@rootshell.be>
To: <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 1:26 PM
Subject: [GENERAL] Firebird vrs Postgresql


> Hello,
>
> had Somebody compared Postgresql vrs Firebird? What is the main
> diferent between this DBs? performance? support? flexibility?.
>
> Best Regards!



Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
"Darko Prenosil"
Date:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dann Corbit" <DCorbit@connx.com>
To: "Erick Dennis" <edennis@rootshell.be>; <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 11:04 PM
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Firebird vrs Postgresql


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Erick Dennis [mailto:edennis@rootshell.be]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 1:27 PM
> To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: [GENERAL] Firebird vrs Postgresql
>
>
> Hello,
>
> had Somebody compared Postgresql vrs Firebird? What is the main
> diferent between this DBs? performance? support? flexibility?.
>>
>Biggest similarity:
>Open source

>Biggest difference:
>License type (Firebird is commercial)

Not quite, it is published under "Interbase Public License", and You do not
need to pay anything to use it.

    I was playing a little with it, tried it on Linux and Windows. It was
the time when it was under heavy development, but I remember that I liked
it's client interface. There were also a whole bunch of useful tools like
IBObjects, IBAcess etc. So if You are Delphi or Borland C++ programmer,
You'll hardly find better interfaces and better tools for any other DB
(IBObjects has very complex and very good data-aware components).

    I find PostgreSQL more robust, secure and what is most important -
flexible. You can create your own types, casts, conversions, languages etc.
For example check for "pgbash" package and You'll se what I mean (it is bash
with direct support for executing SQL commands for PostgreSQL)
What I like with postgres is that You do not need commercial support for it:
You will always get answer on Your questions, all You need to do is ask.

Regards !



Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Markus Bertheau
Date:
В Втр, 15.07.2003, в 23:32, Derek Hamilton пишет:
> I'm not sure this is still the case, but I recently chose PostgreSQL over
> Firebird because Firebird requires direct access to the database file.
> There is no way to access it via TCP/IP with drivers, etc.  That killed
> Firebird in my mind.

It's not like that anymore, you "just" need to know the path to the
database file on the remote server. It has the ability to spread a
database over several files to overcome OS limitations to the file size,
but it's not transparent iirc. Firebirds concept of a database name in
PostgreSQL is a filename on the servers file system. Other that that
it's a serious database.

--
Markus Bertheau.
Berlin, Berlin.
Germany.

Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
"scott.marlowe"
Date:
On 16 Jul 2003, Markus Bertheau wrote:

> В Втр, 15.07.2003, в 23:32, Derek Hamilton пишет:
> > I'm not sure this is still the case, but I recently chose PostgreSQL over
> > Firebird because Firebird requires direct access to the database file.
> > There is no way to access it via TCP/IP with drivers, etc.  That killed
> > Firebird in my mind.
>
> It's not like that anymore, you "just" need to know the path to the
> database file on the remote server. It has the ability to spread a
> database over several files to overcome OS limitations to the file size,
> but it's not transparent iirc. Firebirds concept of a database name in
> PostgreSQL is a filename on the servers file system. Other that that
> it's a serious database.

I think that issue is being fixed in v 1.5, which is in beta right now.


Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Andrew Gould
Date:
--- Derek Hamilton <derek@capweb.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure this is still the case, but I recently
> chose PostgreSQL over
> Firebird because Firebird requires direct access to
> the database file.
> There is no way to access it via TCP/IP with
> drivers, etc.  That killed
> Firebird in my mind.
>
> Derek

It's my understanding that direct access is one of the
access modes that you can choose.  Networked,
client-server options are available.

For what it's worth, when I looked at Firebird, I
noted:

1. Multi-table updates were not available as a single
SQL statement.  There were programming work-arounds
for this, of course; but why work so hard?

2. You could import a fixed-width data file; but not a
delimited file.  In PostgreSQL, you could COPY a data
file that uses a single delimiter; but COPY does not
handle fixed-width data files. (Please correct me if
I'm wrong on this.)

3. Firebird is available for Windows and Unixish
operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, etc.

4. I couldn't find the documentation to tell me where
to start once I installed the database server. (This
may have been obvious to a DBA.)

(Regarding #3: What is the proper way to refer to
Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, etc., collectively?)

Have fun,

Andrew Gould

Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Ian Barwick
Date:
On Wednesday 16 July 2003 00:32, Andrew Gould wrote:

> 4. I couldn't find the documentation to tell me where
> to start once I installed the database server. (This
> may have been obvious to a DBA.)

Here:
http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_download
there is a "Firebird Quick Start Guide" which provides useful orientation
for the uninitiated (or those merely poking about ;-). Note that
the docs are for 1.0x, some things described seem to have changed
in the 1.5 betas.

> (Regarding #3: What is the proper way to refer to
> Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, etc., collectively?)

Unixen, or possibly GNU/Unixen ? ;-)

Ian Barwick
barwick@gmx.net


Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Ron Johnson
Date:
On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 17:45, Ian Barwick wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 July 2003 00:32, Andrew Gould wrote:
>
> > 4. I couldn't find the documentation to tell me where
> > to start once I installed the database server. (This
> > may have been obvious to a DBA.)
>
> Here:
> http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_download
> there is a "Firebird Quick Start Guide" which provides useful orientation
> for the uninitiated (or those merely poking about ;-). Note that
> the docs are for 1.0x, some things described seem to have changed
> in the 1.5 betas.
>
> > (Regarding #3: What is the proper way to refer to
> > Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, etc., collectively?)
>
> Unixen, or possibly GNU/Unixen ? ;-)

Sun might get peeved at Solaris being clumped in as part of GNU/Unixen!

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.     Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net          |
| Jefferson, LA  USA   http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
|                                                           |
| 4 degrees from Vladimir Putin
+-----------------------------------------------------------+


Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
Robert Treat
Date:
On Mon, 2003-07-14 at 17:54, Darko Prenosil wrote:
> >Biggest difference:
> >License type (Firebird is commercial)
>
> Not quite, it is published under "Interbase Public License", and You do not
> need to pay anything to use it.
>

Anyone know if the license is approved by the fsf? Or to put it another
way just because you don't have to pay doesn't mean its free".

Robert Treat
--
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL


Re: Firebird vrs Postgresql

From
"scott.marlowe"
Date:
On 15 Jul 2003, Ron Johnson wrote:

> On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 17:45, Ian Barwick wrote:
> > On Wednesday 16 July 2003 00:32, Andrew Gould wrote:
> >
> > > 4. I couldn't find the documentation to tell me where
> > > to start once I installed the database server. (This
> > > may have been obvious to a DBA.)
> >
> > Here:
> > http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_download
> > there is a "Firebird Quick Start Guide" which provides useful orientation
> > for the uninitiated (or those merely poking about ;-). Note that
> > the docs are for 1.0x, some things described seem to have changed
> > in the 1.5 betas.
> >
> > > (Regarding #3: What is the proper way to refer to
> > > Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, etc., collectively?)
> >
> > Unixen, or possibly GNU/Unixen ? ;-)
>
> Sun might get peeved at Solaris being clumped in as part of GNU/Unixen!

True, but most Sun Sysadmins I know install all of the GNU utils right
after they install Solaris.  I think Sun has a seperate disk now with all
the GNU stuff on it, don't they?

Still, they might not find it too funny to be GNU/Solaris.  :-)