Re: [vox] PostgreSQL vs. Oracle

[Henry House <hajhouseMAPS@houseag.com>]

Sign, more FUD. Eric: here's some more backing if if you need it.

On Fri, Feb 01, 2002 at 10:53:47AM -0800, Eric Engelhard wrote:
[...]
>   It would be a huge
> > business risk to bank on a shareware database to run your operation.

Open source is not shareware. Unlike shareware and unlike Oracle, the full
source code is available so that anyone with programming knowledge may verify
that the program is correct.

[...]
> > Don't get me wrong, Postgress is great for small web sites and small
> > data sets, but it does not make sense to use it in your environment.
> > One thing is for sure - if you implement Postgress, the longer you
> > wait to replace it, the harder it will be.

This is true of most RDBMSes---including Oracle and Postgres (NB: only one
"s").  Oracle has plenty of propriatary SQL additions that can make a DB
programmer's life easier but prevent the user from switching to another
RBDMS. Conversely, both Oracle and Postgres may be used in a portable fasion.

> > Oracle will cost you more in hard dollars up front, but your TCO will be
> > lower in the long run, and your risk will be drastically reduced.   The
> > last thing you want is your technology to limit your business growth.

What is the risk of using Postgres? This claim is vague and is not backed up
by specifics.

> > I have nothing that directly compares Oracle to Postgress - we simply
> > don't run into them in serious business situations.  I'd recommend you
> > not allow your firm to make a decision based on the mindset that
> > Opensource is good enough for you.

Of course it is not 'good enough' merely because it is open source. It is
good enough because of the years of development, huge support community, and
extensive support for features needed in real-world applications.

-- 
Henry House
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