Re: Forrester: Ingres and MySQL Lead Open Source Databases

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Rob Napier<rob(at)doitonce(dot)net(dot)au> wrote:
> Anyway, I think I have said enough on the topic. This started as a
> discussion about getting timely media releases prepared. Selena suggested
> that it could be done by volunteers. I don’t think it can. But if there are
> people who want to try, I wish them luck. As I wrote earlier. It is bloody
> hard work! It’s not simply a matter of writing a story and expecting
> journalists to run it.

No, at least according to gmail's threading this conversation started
with yet another ill-informed Forrester report and Josh saying that
the reason it was ill-informed was because he didn't have time to get
back to them.

I would dispute that premise and in fact say that it's probably for
the best that we didn't speak to Forrester. He said he would try to
reach them now but a) I doubt they'll be interested and b) I doubt it
would work out for the best.

Forrester has little more credibility than Gartner group or other paid
shill analysts. They publish reports which are invariably
complimentary for the companies on their client list. Anyone else who
speaks to them or provides data inevitably finds their own words or
data being twisted to benefit their paymasters.

In addition to Postgres not being as scalable or reliable as MySQL did
you know that Linux distributions take longer to release security
patches than Microsoft? Thank Redhat for providing the raw data which
led to that conclusion.

c.f.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2004/04/05/201601/forrester-study-questions-linux-security.htm
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=178601879

In short Forrester, Gartner, and others like them are not your
friends. I would urge Josh and others to avoid giving them any quotes
or data which will only lend them credibility.

If you want to rebut the article the strategy to use would be what
Redhat did to that linux security report. Make sure there's a contact
for responsible journalists to call and have at your ready rebuttal
arguments. There will be plenty of journalists who don't bother
calling, especially if as in this case Postgres is just an
afterthought, but real journalists will call whoever has the most to
lose and get "balance" quotes.

--
greg
http://mit.edu/~gsstark/resume.pdf