Re: MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Kunal wrote:
> I know I know, this topic is probably a cliche by now, but I am looking for real world developers'
> and DBAs' experiences from people who have managed/ developed for both.
>
> I've developed for MySQL before but never used PostgreSQL but am interested in doing so. I'll
> probably be giving it a shot myself anyways, but with the newer versions of MySQL offering
> features like views, SPs etc., what makes PostgreSQL worth the switch? I've gone through many
> articles on this topic, but most of them compare features and not experiences which is what I am
> looking for.

The following is just my personal opinion, based on what
I experienced with these systems. Your mileage may vary,
and I'm certain there are people with conflicting opinions,
so please put flames to /dev/null.

As far as the features are concerned, mysql is still light-
years behind postgres. Yes, they did introduce transactions,
but only with certain table types, and then you can't have
clustering, or something else is limited in absurd ways.
There are many cases of "if you use feature x, you cannot
use feature y". I don't know how much of that was fixed,
because I tried to avoid mysql in the recent past. It may
well be the case that those things have been fixed.

One thing which I like about postgres is its robustness.
I experienced broken mysql tables several times; it seems
to be a very fragile system. It never happened to me with
postgres. You can even pull the power plug from a running
postgres server -- Upon reboot, it will complain loudly at
you, but it will come up and run just fine.

Also, I think it is much easier to debug SQL statements in
postgres. The output from explain analyze etc. is very
helpful in finding out why a query might perform less than
optimal.

Best regards
Oliver

PS: In case it matters, I'm using postgres on FreeBSD 4.x
on UFS and NFS filesytems.

--
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.

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