Re: DRAFT beta release announcement

All,

Here's what I have now:

=========================

DATE: The first beta release of PostgreSQL version 9.0 is now
available. Version 9.0 is the first version of PostgreSQL to include
built-in real-time binary database replication with query scale-out,
consisting of two features, "Hot Standby" and "Streaming Replication".
Combined with its other major features, this release will expand
adoption of PostgreSQL by new users and in new types of applications.

This release is a beta version. This means that it is expected to have
bugs, issues, and missing documentation. 9.0 beta is being released so
that our users will find those issues and allow eliminating them before
the final release. The PostgreSQL Global Development Group requests that
all users download and test version 9.0 to help us produce a timely and
trouble-free 9.0 release.

In version 9.0, a large number of new features will allow developers and
DBAs to broaden their use of PostgreSQL, including:

* New binary replication
* 64-bit support on Windows
* Improved LISTEN/NOTIFY allows fast internal database event messaging
* Anonymous procedure blocks with the DO statement
* Conditional and SQL-compliant per-column triggers
* Support for Python 3 in in PL/Python and numerous PL/Perl improvements
* Uniqueness constraints for non-scalar data (exclusion constraints)
* Improved key-value data support
* Automatic join removal, optimizing for ORM-generated queries

The full list of over 200 changes is available in the release notes:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/release-9-0.html

Users interested in taking advantage of these new features should
download and test porting their applications to PostgreSQL 9.0 beta now.
Because version 9.0 includes many new major features as well as
overhauled internal code, such as changes to the syntax allowed by the
PL/PgSQL language, backwards compatiblility issues are expected.

Source code, as well as binary installers for many platforms, is
available from the PostgreSQL Web Site:

* Beta Information Page: http://www.postgresql.org/developer/beta
* Source: http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/source/9.0beta1
* Windows Installer: http://www.enterprisedb.com/products/pgdownload.do
* Binaries for other platforms:
http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/9.0beta1
* Release Notes:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/release-9-0.html

--
-- Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://www.pgexperts.com