MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

[Earle Martin]

As seen on another list. Thought it might be of interest....

(Light blue touch paper. Stand well back.)

----- Begin forwarded message -----

Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 01:55:51 +0100
From: Dave Voorhis
To: [snip]
Subject: Re: [SubG] PoStGrEsqQl ReViEw

On Thu, 2006-04-06 at 13:27 -0700, Art Vandelay wrote:

> http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid41_gci1179016,00.html

> "Goulet said that setting up a TCP/IP connection
> capability with PostgreSQL is hardly an intuitive
> process. To do it, he says, one needs to modify
> the postgres.conf and pg_hba.conf files manually."
> 
> It is however well-documented, well marked, and
> not difficult to do. May not be intuitve, but it
> aint hard to figure out. Contrasted with MySQL which
> has a confusingly (imo, yes) documented db permissions
> system

TrVth.  The minimal, one-time configuration edits needed for PostgreSQL
are nothing compared to the ongoing dry buttfuck you get from MySQL's
peculiar SQL dialect, mind-jellyingly confusing documentation, and
propensity to self-immolate without warning.  I've never had a MySQL
installation run for more than a couple of years without dying.  That
isn't acceptable.  I have PostgreSQL installations that have been on-
line and heavily loaded since 1998, and have only been down briefly for
software or hardware upgrades.

One of my students did a thesis on a dynamic indexing scheme, wherein
indexes are dynamically created or dropped based on various statistics,
in order to gain an overall performance improvement.  As part of his
project, he did extensive performance comparisons between PostgreSQL,
MySQL, Oracle, and MS SQL Server.  PostgreSQL and MS SQL Server turned
out pretty much equal, and both beat Oracle.  All three kicked MySQL's
ass in everything but toy applications, like a handful of users on a
local machine with minimal database updates.  

I can't think of a valid reason to use MySQL for anything.  I hereby
proclaim that anyone who voluntarily chooses to use MySQL is dangerously
incompetent and should cease any further IT activity and immediately
take up a career scrubbing the porcelain fixtures at the local bus
depot.

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Earle Martin
            http://downlode.org/
http://purl.org/net/earlemartin/