Re: Draft #5 -- radically re-written

This looks really good. A few suggestions follow...

> ===================================================================
> The PostgreSQL Global Development Group is pleased to announce the
> availability of version 7.4 of the PostgreSQL Relational Database
> Management System (RDBMS). This major release, the work
> of our world wide network of hundreds of developers and contributors over
> the last 9 months, provides commercial-grade enterprise database
> functionality and performance for the very economical overhead cost of Open
> Source software.

... functionality and performance, with the flexibility and low total cost of ownership widely associated with Open Source software.

> "If you tried PostgreSQL before, and went with a commercial database like
> Oracle or DB2 instead, it's time to re-evaluate," says Rod Taylor of Inquent
> Technologies. "PostgreSQL's expanding enterprise feature set and performance
> improvements over the last two years make PostgreSQL competitive with even the
> highest-end database systems. And it's certainly less expensive."

"... And you can't beat the cost."

>
> NEW ENTERPRISE DATABASE FEATURES
> ------------------------------------------
> Among the large enterprise features which have been added, expanded, or
> improved in version 7.4 are:
>

Among the major enterprise features...

> OPTERON SUPPORT: PostgreSQL is now optimized on the AMD Opteron, thanks to
> the work of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, adding to the family
> of proven 64-bit platforms which includes HP/Compaq, Alpha, Sun
> UltraSPARC, MIPS, PA-RISC, and RS6000*. 64-bit platforms are an emerging
> class of high-performance computing, with greater power and scaleability
> needed for enterprise systems.

Is anyone from AMD active on the lists? I'm sure their PR people would love to get on board with this. See http://www.amd.com/us-en/Weblets/0,,7832_8366_5730,00.html

Also, er, silly question - do we run on Itanium 2? Even though Intel punted on the desktop, it still seems conspicuous by its absence on this list.

> REPLICATION: PostgreSQL Inc. and Affilias Inc. this week contributed their
> eRServer Java-based replication solution for PostgreSQL. eRServer
> provides a tremendously scalable, battle-tested replication option
> significantly more powerful than previous Open Source solutions available.

lose "this week" and reword - Pgsql Inc and Affilias "have contributed their eRServer Java-based replication solution to the PostgreSQL community. eRServer provides a highly scalable, battle-tested replication option significantly more powerful than previously available Open Source solutions.

> PERFORMANCE: Several major performance enhancements have been added in version
> 7.4, ensuring that PostgreSQL can match or exceed other enterprise database
> systems' speed. These include:

"... enabling PostgreSQL to match or exceed the speed of other enterprise database systems."

> - Hash aggregation in memory to make data warehousing and OLAP queries
> up to 20 times faster;
> - Improvements in subquery handling by the planner resulting in up to 400%
> speed increases in some complex queries;
> - New wire protocol (version 3) increases the speed of data transfers;
> - Enhanced implementation of functional indexes allows better
> indexing on custom data types and composite fields.
>
> HIGH AVAILABILITY: Expansion of PostgreSQL's Free Space Map disk management
> feature to support continuous index maintenence is the last "piece of the
> puzzle" in providing 99.999% uptime for PostgreSQL databases.

"... index maintenance to support 99.999% uptime for PostgreSQL databases. The achievement of 'five nines' is the highest level of uptime available in any commercial software, and is associated with only the most mission-critical business applications."

> Further, 7.4 downloads with the new Auto Vacuum Daemon which eliminates the guesswork from
> scheduling database maintenence.

"Further, 7.4 comes standard with the new Auto Vacuum Daemon ..."

> FULL TEXT INDEXING: PostgreSQL's TSearch module now includes a ranked
> preference system, making TSearch equal to or better than many full text
> indexing solutions offered by other RDBMSs.

"... preference system, for performance exceeding many searching solutions offered by other database systems."

> ADVANCED SQL FEATURES: PostgreSQL continues to expand its support for the
> Intermediate and Advanced portions of the SQL 92 and 99 standards
> including some SQL features not found in other databases. New in 7.4 are
> statement-level triggers and read-only transactions, as well as several SQL
> extensions including multi-byte regular expressions, polymorphic functions,
> and enhanced array data type handling.
>
>
> ADOPTING POSTGRESQL EASIER THAN EVER
> ---------------------------------------
> As many Database Administrators (DBAs) will want to try PostgreSQL 7.4 for
> their companies, we have taken several steps to make the transition from other
> enterprise databases to PostgreSQL easier:

The following enhancements aid in the testing, prototyping, and porting efforts of database professionals considering a switch to PostgreSQL:

> SQL-STANDARD ERROR FRAMEWORK: The PostgreSQL Team hascompletelyy redesigned
> error logging and reporting, providing developers with an SQL99 compliant
> mechanism for debugging and troubleshooting, and giving users real time
> suggestions on how to avoid error conditions in their applications.

"SQL-STANDARD ERROR FRAMEWORK: Completely redesigned ..."

> REORGANIZED AND EXPANDED DOCUMENTATION: The documentation contributors have
> completely reorganized and added many new pages to the online documentation,
> making it easier for first-time PostgreSQL DBAs to get their databases built,
> tuned, and running.

REORGANIZED AND EXPANDED DOCUMENTATION: Completely reorganized and significantly expanded online documentation, making it easier for first-time PostgreSQL users to get their databases and applications built, tuned, and running.

> SQL-STANDARD INFORMATION SCHEMA: 7.4 includes an SQL99 compliant Information
> Schema (or "metadata"). This provides application developers with database,
> type, object, and configuration information in a way which eases the migration
> of interfaces and middleware between database systems, and even the
> replication of data between commercial databases and PostgreSQL.

"SQL-STANDARD INFORMATION SCHEMA: Version 7.4 includes ..."

> EXPLICIT JOIN REWRITING: Core developer Tom Lane has included an option
> for explicit join rewriting by the query planner, easing the transition of
> existing applications and queries running on Sybase and MS SQL Server, which
> handle queries this way by default.

"EXPLICIT JOIN REWRITING: An extremely powerful option for power users, which allows explicit ..."

> ENTERPRISE USERS ANTICIPATING 7.4
> ------------------------------------
> "We have used PostgreSQL successfully for over two years in a
> mission-critical capacity to support our registry systems," said Ram Mohan,
> Chief Technology Officer for Afilias Limited, the company responsible for
> running the backend database containing all .info and .org Internet domain
> names worldwide. "This upgrade of PostgreSQL improves the scalability and
> capacity of PostgreSQL and will help to ensure continued advancements to
> future releases. For real-time operations, the planner/optimizer
> enhancements adds more intelligence and allows more efficient operation of
> the database. In addition, the expanded trigger capabilities sets up the
> basis for even further gains in future versions of PostgreSQL."
>
> "[quote from Lamar Owen will go here]" commented Lamar Owen, Director of
> Information Technology for the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.
>
>
> RELEASE DETAILS
> -------------------------------------
> Source for this release is available at:
> http://www.postgresql.org/mirrors-ftp.html
>
> More information on PostgreSQL is available in ten languages on the
> PostgreSQL Advocacy website:
> http://advocacy.postgresql.org/
>
> A complete list of changes in PostgreSQL version 7.4 can be found in the
> HISTORY file included with the release, or available on the web at:
> [http://www.postgresql.org/docs/release/740.html]
>
> About PostgreSQL:
> With more than 16 years of development by hundreds of the world's
> most generous and brilliant minds from the open source community,
> PostgreSQL is the world's most advanced open source database. With its
> long time support of an enterprise level feature set including
> transactions, stored procedures, triggers, and subqueries, PostgreSQL is
> being used by many of today's most demanding businesses and government
> agencies.
>
> Corporations such as BASF, Red Hat, Afilias Limited, Cisco, Chrysler, and
> 3Com, organizations like WGCR Radio, the University of Massachusetts
> at Amherst, and Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, and Open Source
> projects including Bricolage and OpenACS rely on PostgreSQL's rock solid
> performance record and open development process. PostgreSQL is available under
> a BSD License for both commercial and non-commercial use.

Dunno if we add that much, but you're welcome to add "ERP software vendor OpenMFG" to the list.

Cheers,
Ned Lilly
aka ned(at)openmfg(dot)com