Re: PostgresSQL vs. Informix

On Nov 28, 2007, at 6:11 PM, Jeff Larsen wrote:
> I can't offer much in the way of a case study, but I am an Informix
> customer that has been doing an informal feasibility study on
> switching to PostgreSQL. I've learned a ton from the high quality PG
> docs and from the PG mailing lists.
>
I switched a semi-large Informix install to PG and I had nearly
opposite experience. I had nothing but issues with Informix. We had
a nice expensive support contract and got snuffed over bugs and
problems we'd find. (It took them 9 weeks to admit a bug, and they
said they may have a fix in another 10-15 weeks. In the meantime,
just learn to live with it). We also hit a cool bug that prevented us
from taking a "real" backup of one of our informix installs. that
was fun. Informix support again refused to help us. The PG
community on the other hand is very eager to help. While we don't
write them a check for $lots, they give better support. Plus given
it is open source you can always look under the hood while digging up
a problem.

I found for some things informix would work nicer, but in other areas
pg would smash it or would have other things to help make up for it.
Replication was a breeze to setup in Informix. I'm trying to think
of some other things.. failing miserably... heh.

Granted, these tests were a while ago - dealing with Informix 7 and
some 9.

Some of the big things I loved in PG over Informix were the stored
procedures were much more flexible, triggers worked better, I could
store more data in it (I got bit by the 2^21 pages of data per table
limit in Informix. Luckly that error comes up as another unrelated
error if you hit it), and I found administration to be much simpler.

Sorry I don't have more details, this was mostly back around 2001-02
or so.

iirc, didn't some big us govt group move to PG from Informix? I
think Bruce mentioned something once about that..
--
Jeff Trout <jeff(at)jefftrout(dot)com>
http://www.dellsmartexitin.com/
http://www.stuarthamm.net/