[oclug] Open Source Databases

[Bill Bourne]

You ask good questions, for which there are no simple answers.
I work at Nortel Networks and have been involved in recent evaluations 
of databases for use in our products, across  most of our product 
groups. Databases under discussion include: Oracle, MySQL, Times-Ten, 
Solid, SyBase, Versant, and a few others. Microsoft was not involved in 
the consideration since the products under consideration don't (and 
don't ever plan to) use a Windows OS, not because there is anything 
inherently "wrong" with SQL Server. Nortel uses all these databases, 
including SQL Server, and others.

I obviously can't say anything about these studies here.

But I do want to suggest that you cannot really answer your questions 
without looking at the "commercial" aspects of the database market:
- license prices.
- license terms and conditions.
- service and support
- the database vendor's target market... who are they going after?

The British have a saying "Horses for Courses" (different reace horses 
do well under different race course conditions)  Different database 
products will be better in certains situations and certain kinds of 
applications.

And things like pricing, license terms, support, the vendor's target 
market, etc, are as important as technical features.

Cheers, Bill
http://www.bashd.ca


Kevin Li wrote:

>Hi I just have a few quick questions that I'm sure many people know the question to:
>
>1. Is there compatibility between the commericial OpenIngres product (the one
>from Computer Associates) and PostgreSQL?
>
>I'm writting my work report on our current web application set up and there is a
>section where I discuss alternatives to our current Oracle 8i database. After
>doing a bit of research some questions came up:
>
>2. Why is MySQL so popular given it's lack of key enterprise database features
>and hence why isn't PostgreSQL as popular given it's enterprise strengths?
>
>3. Other than the fact that SQL Server is from Microsoft, is there really
>disadvantages to the database (aside from the fact that you are then stuck with
>Windows 0S with IIS and all of it's security flaws)? From what I've heard about
>the it seems to be a very good product except that it's expensive and it's from
>Microsoft. Does anybody have anything good to say about MS SQL Server as opposed
>to Open Source databases?
>
>4. Can the Open Source databases of today (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, etc)
>ever give challenge to Oracle for the enterprise market?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Kevin Li
>
>1B Systems Design Engineering
>Social Rep
>Canada Day Director
>Special Events Director
>
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