Re: drupal.org MySQL database issues

On May 17, 2007, at 9:17 AM, Lukas Kahwe Smith wrote:
> Most people use MySQL because thats what everybody else around them
> uses. They lack the expertise, since they are usually "just"
> developers. So picking the most popular makes the most sense to
> them. If its popular it can't be bad and at least there are plenty
> of examples, applications and people to ask.

Agree.

> I do not see PostgreSQL breaking this cycle. So to me the focus
> must be on making sure that people that do have the expertise have
> little reason to choose MySQL. So make sure that MySQL has no upper
> hand on features (like in charset support).

I think one of the keys to breaking it is to get large, well-known
sites to switch off of MySQL, and then do PR around that. Drupal
would be a good example. We also need good information on how hard/
easy it is to migrate from MySQL to PostgreSQL, and of course we need
to do what we can to push it to the easy side of that scale.

> PS: I am not saying that all marketing is futile of course. I would
> focus on Universities. I remember that at least at the TU Berlin I
> saw much more MySQL than PostgreSQL.

One question I've got about that is... do the professors actually
understand what they're teaching well enough to understand why they
should be using PostgreSQL and not MySQL? ISTM that any CS professor
worth his salt when it comes to databases would use MySQL in a
classroom only as a last resort, at least for lower-level classes
(MySQL does have it's place, but you need to understand the basics
before you know what that place is).
--
Jim Nasby jim(at)nasby(dot)net
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com 512.569.9461 (cell)