Re: PostgreSQL derivatives

On Thu, 5 Jun 2008, Robert Treat wrote:

> AFAIK Truvisio does not distribute any open source products.

The wording in this article was a bit unfortunate. Truviso does
distribute open-source components as part of its product, but there's not
a fully open-source "distribution" released publicly the way Bizgress and
Postgres Plus are.

This is fairly similar to the EDB situation when one is using their
Postgres Plus Advanced Server, in that the database component of a Truviso
install will feel like PostgreSQL in most respects to users, but with
additional features available. That is quite different from, say,
Netezza, where you're not so obviously using PostgreSQL under the hood.
So I think that Seth Grimes got the basic grouping right but didn't use
the best terminology to describe the distinction.

> And actually, I don't know of any contributions they have made directly
> to the community.

Don't make me start one of those discussions about how there are a lot of
way to directly contribute to the community besides straight code writing.
If we start it will get Joshua all worked up about that again.

As already pointed out, there are some code contributions from Truviso in
the works, but they haven't really solidifed into new visible features
quite yet. A distinction is this area is probably a better way to
distinguish between the two groups Grimes was trying to point out.
Truviso and EDB's products track the stock PostgreSQL enough that the two
companies can usefully send code to the larger community. If either
company is sending in a patch, it's against HEAD just like any other
contributor. I don't think Netezza or even Greenplum are in that category
anymore.

(Obligatory disclaimer: Greg Smith works for Truviso but doesn't speak
for Truviso in any capacity)

--
* Greg Smith gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD