What's new in PostgreSQL 9.0 - a User's Perspective

http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Illustrated_9_0

by jsrn • 16 years ago

121 45 16 years ago

wiki.postgresql.org

moe5• 16 years ago

This is a wonderful upgrade that might finally convince some users to leave the mess that is MySQL behind.

It's been a long wait but replication is now finally as easy as it gets. And, by design, it can not silently lose or corrupt data. Unlike a certain other popular RDBMS.

y0ghur7_xxx• 16 years ago

This is a wonderful upgrade that might finally convince some users to leave the mess that is MySQL behind.

I agree. PG is becoming better and better with every release. It can compete with Oracle in some applications. Personally I hope they implement Row Level Security some time. It's my favorite feature in Oracle and I hope they will implement something similar soon.

rufugee• 16 years ago

I honestly can't imagine why folks continue to use MySQL over PostreSQL. All technical benefits of PostgreSQL aside, I can't help but wonder if it really comes down to something silly, like MySQL being much easier to pronounce properly.

For my part, I'm stoked about 9.0. It can't get here soon enough.

robryan• 16 years ago

It depends, lots of people know mysql and don't want to deal with switching costs if what there doing isn't going to be limited by database performance. So even if PostreSQL would be the better choice it may not be in terms of migration costs.

bmelton• 16 years ago

In my case, I can tell you it's because I don't already know PG, and MySQL hasn't let me down to the point that I've had to consider switching.

I've done the 'apt-get install postgresql' routine a few times, and started to play with it, but due to it being different enough, and without any compelling motivation, I've never been able to learn it beyond scratching the surface.

That said, I'm a developer, and not a DB admin, so the limitation is almost certainly mine.

ComputerGuru• 16 years ago

Very simple: a lot of pre-packaged software doesn't use except for MySQL.

Well, to clarify, a lot of popular pre-packaged software is out there in PHP. And PHP never had a good db abstraction layer + the entire style of the PHP language lent itself to the direct use of queries in the code, and the direct usage of the MySQL connectors.

When users want a forum, a wiki, a helpdesk, a blog, etc. and it's in PHP, chances are it doesn't have a PostgreSQL backend. And if you have to have MySQL, and MySQL works for everything (for some definition of the word "works") while PostgreSQL doesn't... there's your answer.

The real reason is: PostgreSQL doesn't have any must-have apps that only run PGSQL (which is a good thing), and MySQL does (which is a bad thing) so MySQL wins.

sandGorgon• 16 years ago

Wordpress.

Most widely used blog engine (CMS?) in the world - only MySQL. http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Alternative_Databases

Drupal is probably one of the few PHP CMS that work with PG - http://geek.joshwaihi.com/content/drupal-7-postgresql-suppor...

c00p3r2• 16 years ago

MySQL has a incomparable better marketing and internet presence (well written documentation and community sites).

Its success was due to illusion of simplicity and easiness + massive community of believers ^_^

PostreSQL sites is rather shy comparing to them.

rimantas2• 16 years ago

To be fair some other popular RDBMS had useable replication way before it came to PG. Also it would be interesting to see how much PG is better when used on the scale MySQL is used: the case of benefits on paper vs. real benefits.

moe5• 16 years ago

how much PG is better when used on the scale MySQL is used

Please do your homework before spreading FUD. PostgreSQL is used at large scale every day, e.g. at Skype: http://highscalability.com/skype-plans-postgresql-scale-1-bi...

More examples can be found here: http://www.postgresql.org/about/users

pilif2• 16 years ago

another year, another release.

Thank you, everyone behind the development of PostgreSQL. I wouldn't be in my life where I am now if it wasn't for the work you are constantly putting into this wonderful project.

And when one thinks "now. this is it. it can't get any better now", you come out with another high-quality release.

Thank you ever so much.

mrj• 16 years ago

Postgres just keeps getting better. 8.4 was a fantastic release, too.

I don't know how they manage it, but every release adds features and becomes more stable. Pretty awesome job.

rdeleonp2• 16 years ago

And they also get faster with every release.

A very high quality product, indeed.

beatlevic• 16 years ago

Does this release add any features that would keep you from going for a NoSQL solution? How does it for instance compare to MongoDB in terms of raw performance and scalability? (Not mentioning of course the difference in schema-less and relational design)

crad4• 16 years ago

I have found Apples to Apples (fsync off in PgSQL) and doing key/value store in PgSQL, PgSQL performed on par with, or slightly faster than MongoDB, using my admittedly not fully baked KVPBench app - http://github.com/gmr/kvpbench.

gxti• 16 years ago

FUN FACT: (and you probably already know this but many do not): "fsync = off" is postgresql-ese for "please destroy all my data". Don't do it. Ever. The 9.0 docs are finally improving the language here to indicate that you must not set fsync off if you value your job.

Setting "synchronous_commit = off" nets you 99.9% of the performance improvement without the possibility of corrupting your entire database.

xal• 16 years ago

why don't you publish the results of your benchmark?

rbranson2• 16 years ago

This is it. The final release that will put PostgreSQL ahead of MySQL in the performance and scalability realm. They've already exceeded or are at par with MySQL in single-box OLTP performance, now PostgreSQL can scale-out with read slaves. Other than entrenchment, there's very little justifiability in using any other RDBMS system (proprietary or open source) after 9.0 rolls out.

MarkBook• 16 years ago

I know that cost and cross platform capabilities are big issues but for someone using MS SQL server express (free if database size < 10 GB) in windows, are there any advantages that PostgreSQL has?

avar3• 16 years ago

I keep hoping that PostgreSQL will support an embedded version. SQLite only gets you so far, and it'd be nice to be able to ship PostgreSQL statically linked into your applications with zero-configuration at the user's end.

MySQL's working on this (http://mysql.com/oem/), but I've read that PostgreSQL is way too tied to their multi-process network architecture for this to be feasible. But I'd love to be shown to wrong on that.

rbranson2• 16 years ago

I don't think it'd be terribly infeasible from an architectural standpoint because of the multi-process network architecture, but there are other things to consider. The multi-process architecture is really in it's favor, as it already uses IPC primitives (shared memory, semaphores) to share cache and control access to shared resources. The biggest barrier (I think) would be the file format. SQLite stores all of it's data in a single file (plus one temporary file for the journal). PostgreSQL's on-disk format would have to be heavily redesigned to support this, which I think is a huge advantage for SQLite.

avar3• 16 years ago

Then again, there's no reason why an embedded database can't launch multiple subprocesses, or talk to itself via a socket for that matter. The same goes for the storage SQLite uses one file, but an embedded PostgreSQL allocating one opaque directory would be fine.

The important part is that you'd be able to easily statically link to it and handle permissions on a by-file basis, instead of PostgreSQL's current permission model. For all intents and purposes it'd be a larger SQLite replacement then.

spudlyo• 16 years ago

Just once I'd like to have a discussion on HN about either MySQL or PostgreSQL without having a long thread about why one is more popular/better than the other. Not going to happen.

jkahn2• 16 years ago

I've been wanting to use PostgreSQL. Does anyone know any good GUI tools for MacOS X for it?

simon_kun2• 16 years ago

pgAdmin3 + SQLEditor (http://www.malcolmhardie.com/sqleditor/)

jkahn2• 16 years ago

Ah, it looks like pgAdmin3 is what I was after. It's a bit fugly but it will probably do.

simon_kun2• 16 years ago

datapoint: I've been using PostgreSQL (and it's GIS extension PostGIS) with Rails for over a year now. Some minor issues along the way, but never ever going back to MySQL.

What's new in PostgreSQL 9.0 - a User's Perspective

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