Bruce,
> I think Oracle is our main competitor. We seem to get more people
> porting from Oracle than any other database, and our feature set matches
> there's most closely.
I disagree, and did as well when you were with Great Bridge. No matter how
Postgres core functionality compares with Oracle, they have nearly a decade
of building tools, accessories, and extra whiz-bang features for their
product. Not to mention a serious reputation as the "ultimate database if
you can afford it."
As long as we target Oracle as our "competition", we will remain "the database
to use if you can't afford Oracle, but to be replaced with Oracle as soon as
you can." Heck, look at DB2, which is toe-to-toe with Oracle for feature
set, but is only really sold to companies who use IBM's other tools. We're
not in a position to challenge that reputation.
On the other hand, we already outstrip MS SQL Server's feature set, as well as
being more reliable, lower-maintainence, multi-platform, and cheaper.
Frankly, the only thing that MS SQL has over us is easy-but-unreliable GUI
admin tools (backup, user, and database management).
Let's pick battles we can win. We'll beat Oracle eventually -- but not in the
next few years.
-Josh Berkus