Bruce Momjian

Postgres Blog


This blog is about my work on the Postgres open source database, and is also published on Planet PostgreSQL.

I currently have 17 unread Postgres email messages. (unread history, incoming email, outgoing email)

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Caring for Your (PG) Introvert

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Many computer programmers are introverts because they have chosen the solitary job of creating programs that accomplish specific tasks. Open source developers are probably even more prone to be introverts because the (boring?) meetings, office chit-chat, and lunch outings are mostly gone, with the only communication being via email, instant messaging, twitter, and blogs. Open source social interaction is certainly more controlled than traditional communication.

This excellent article describes introverts as generally misunderstood:

Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people. They are as inscrutable as puppy dogs. But the street does not run both ways. Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion.

The Postgres community is probably filled with introverts, and that's to be expected, considering that our work does not have the kind of regular personal interaction that would keep extroverts happy. It is no surprise that introverts thrive in our community.

This also makes conferences even more valuable — it is a chance to be with other people who care about the same things we care about, and to tell some jokes. Of course, the conference talks are always good, but what stays with me after conferences is not the knowledge I have gained, but the people I have met and learned more about.

Wanted: New Project Slogan

Friday, January 29, 2010

On Monday Josh Berkus requested suggestions for a new Postgres slogan. Our current slogan, "The world's most advanced open source database", was chosen in the early years of the project to distinguish ourselves from other open source databases, and it is easy to see why we should consider a change at this time. The suggestions fit into several categories, some serious, some humorous. Continued discussion is taking place on the advocacy (pgsql-advocacy@postgresql.org) email list.

General

Reliability

"Your"

Open Source

Humorous

Our Name

Update: Here is a more complete list.

Postgres Is Hot In Philadelphia

Thursday, January 28, 2010

I was approached in the fall about speaking at various Philadelphia computer user group meetings. Now that I am home I have been able to speak at several, and it is clear there is greatly increased interest in Postgres here in the Philadelphia area, and I bet in other cities as well. For example, in January/February, I am speaking at:

I am also speaking in Albany (full event list), and of course the big event for March is the PG East 2010 conference, also in Philadelphia. This year the conference has been extended for four days, and one of those days is made up of tutorials, which is great for new Postgres users. I am giving one on Postgres administration, and there are two others being given at the same time. I think it is likely there will be a huge increase in the number of conference attendees compared to last year.

For those of you in other cities, you might want to contact your local computer user groups to see if they would be interested in hearing a talk about Postgres. There is a lot of renewed interest in what our community is doing.

Threats to Postgres

Thursday, January 28, 2010

I have always thought there were three possible threats to Postgres:

The first issue is that our web domains are owned by a single individual, though others are able to modify the domain. The second involves patent attacks, which seems to be a risk for all software. The third item is a more general version of the skill siphoning / brain drain email thread I blogged about last year, but with a sinister goal of hiring away developers to work on anything but Postgres.

As Postgres becomes more widely adopted, these attacks become more likely. Are there other threats I have not listed? Are there more steps we can take to protect ourselves?

Oops, Confusing Press Release

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Last week EnterpriseDB put out a press release with an inaccurate title. Instead of being titled, "EnterpriseDB Responds to EU Decision to Approve Oracle's Acquisition of MySQL", it was unfortunately titled "Postgres Community Responds ...". This has the potential to confuse journalists into thinking that Postgres development is not community controlled, and that's the last thing we want to happen at this point, with MySQL's problem in this area starkly highlighted. This dovetails well with the blog entry I posted a few weeks ago titled, "Don't Confuse Companies with Community".

The Next Postgres Adoption Wave

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Based on recent discussions, I am wondering if Postgres is poised for a significant adoption increase in the next year. This is based on a few events:

The last time Postgres appeared poised for another adoption increase was in 2005, with the release of PostgreSQL 8.0, when the native Windows port was introduced. I would say that release marked the point where Postgres became a respected open source database; prior to that we had a reputation of being slow and hard to manage. We had made changes for years before that, but the 8.0 release helped solidify our reputation.

The 9.0 release has the potential for Postgres to move from a respected open source database to a respected mainstream database, because, frankly, how many other databases are attracting new users at the rate we are? — very few.

Postgres 9.0 Coming

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Last week Dave Page announced that the next major release of Postgres will be numbered 9.0, rather than 8.5 as previous expected. This change was made because the next major PostgreSQL release will include built-in log-streaming replication, and that has always been considered a feature worthy of increasing the first version number.

While Postgres has had log-based replication support for a few releases, the 9.0 release will allow logs to be streamed to the slave using network transfer, which greatly increases the frequency at which logs can reasonably be sent. It also allows the slave server to accept read-only queries (hot standby), again a major feature addition.

European Union Recognizes PostgreSQL

Thursday, January 21, 2010

It seems the European Commission studying the Oracle purchase of Sun/MySQL has finally realized Postgres is a viable open source alternative to MySQL and has approved the purchase:

The Commission's investigation showed that another open source database, PostgreSQL, is considered by many database users to be a credible alternative to MySQL and could be expected to replace to some extent the competitive force currently exerted by MySQL on the database market.

This article, titled in part, "If MySQL fails, there's always PostgreSQL", puts it even more succinctly. I know many MySQL people worked very hard campaigning against approval, and I am sure they are disappointed by the outcome. Postgres users should thank them because even though they lost, their work has increased the visibility of all open source databases, including PostgreSQL.

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Seeking Documentation Proofreading Assistance

Thursday, January 21, 2010

I mentioned two years ago that I was going to read through the Postgres documentation to see if I could improve it. Now, two years later, I have read through only 25% of the manual. (I will be making a commit to the "Administration" book in the next week.)

My new plan is to solicit volunteers to complete the proofreading of the entire manual. I have created a wiki describing the process and how to get involved. Amazingly, someone took responsibility for a book even before I announced the existence of the wiki. I have also emailed a few people who have offered proofreading assistance in the past.

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Don't Confuse Companies with Community

Monday, January 4, 2010

There have recently been several excellent blog posts by Postgres community members regarding the campaign by MySQL developers to block the purchase of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. Unfortunately, I think a fatal mistake was made by the MySQL developers years ago when they equated the success of MySQL AB, the company, with the success of MySQL, the software. They are not the same, but, tragically, it is too late to undo that mistake.

I think the majority of Postgres developers understand the distinction between the success of their companies and the success of the PostgreSQL project. Most of us agree that the success of the PostgreSQL project is a purpose far greater than our individual or company successes. While the Postgres project will undoubtedly make mistakes in the future, confusing company success with community success will probably not be one of them.

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