Re: MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

[Paul Johnson]

Dear Swarm users

It is a peculiar coincidence that the database question has come up here
as well as in a linux/unix user group that I belong to.  One of the
brightest people I know is Jeffrey Watts, and he made a list of the
pros/cons on mysql and postgresql,  and this leads strongly to the
conclusion that postgresql is the best free alternative.
Just in case someone is actually going to dig into this, I found this
informative.

> 
> On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Rohini Vashisht wrote:
> 
> > I have talked with some people who use PostgreSQL and/or MySQL in a
> > production environment as well as done some research on the internet.
> > I am very interested in hearing back from users about their
> > experiences with these databases. 


Jeffrey Watts wrote:
> Not to beat a dead horse, but I believe that if you are doing real
> database work, the only other choice besides PostgreSQL is paying the
> money for Oracle.
> 
> Pros of Postgresql:
>         Nice tools
>         Many language interfaces
>         Object-oriented
>         Fully programmable
>         Full-featured (many extra data types)
>         Most of SQL92 implemented (no database has all of SQL92)
>         Robust
>         Row-level locking
> 
> Pros of MySQL:
>         Nice tools
>         Many language interfaces
>         Fast writes
>         Adequate implementation of SQL92
> 
> Cons of Postgresql:
>         (In)Adequate write performance (better than Informix, worse than
>           Oracle)
> 
> Cons of MySQL:
>         NO TRANSACTIONS (no data integrity)
>         It only has table-level locking (concurrent writes or reads will
>           block)
>         Not Object-oriented
>         Not fully programmable (only can do external routines -- no
>           internal triggers)
>         Poor SELECT performance
>         Questionable crash recovery (COMMIT may not flush write
>           buffers...)
> 
> Basically, you should only use MySQL if the bulk of what you do is
> single-threaded writes.  Otherwise, use PostgreSQL.
> 
> Personally, I've done a lot of research on this, as I had to make that
> choice two years ago.  At the time, PostgreSQL was still having the dust
> shook off of it (the Postgres/PostgreSQL source has been around for about
> 15 years) and MySQL was well-developed and supported.  At the time,
> MySQL's absence of transactions, it's non-Free nature, and its lack of
> features caused me to embrace PostgreSQL.  Since then, MySQL has gotten
> incrementally better and PostgreSQL has improved DRAMATICALLY.
> 
> In the database advocacy wars, PostgreSQL used to be beaten up for
> mediocre performance, but that is really a thing of the past.  PostgreSQL
> as of about version 6.3 has had more than adequate performance.  The
> previous slowdowns were mostly due to unoptimized routines and extraneous
> features (Postgres was a research database developed by Stonebraker at
> Berkeley). The most significant feature that was removed to improve
> performance was the removal of Time Travel, a really cool feature that
> trashed performance.  The current source tree is lean, well-understood,
> and actively maintained and developed.
> 
> I _highly_ recommend PostgreSQL for a database product.  You get similar
> functionality to Oracle, and it is Free.
> 
> If anyone needs help with PostgreSQL, please feel free to ask.  There are
> also several other people on the list whole have used it in a real-world
> setting  besides myself.
> 
> Jeffrey.
> 
> o-----------------------------------o
> | Jeffrey Watts                     |
> | address@hidden            o-------------------------------------o
> | Systems Programmer            | "...I'm not one of those who think  |
> | Sprint - Systems Management   |  Bill Gates is the devil. I simply  |
> o-------------------------------|  suspect that if Microsoft ever met |


-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: address@hidden
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700

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