> I believe the rule that Oracle has is that you cannot publish
> benchmarks of their system without their approval. Doing so violates
> your license to use the software. So, either you cannot claim the
> "faster" result on the grounds that you have no basis for the claim;
> or, you're violating your license with Oracle. So, even if Oracle
> has no interest in calling out their counsel, it's still a bad idea
> to mention them explicitly, because it makes the claims in the
> release either goundless or license-violating.
I'm reluctant to give up the mention of Oracle, becuase without it the quote
lacks all punch. However, we don't have to say "faster than" if that's going
to be a trigger for them. What about:
"If you tried PostgreSQL before, and went with a commercial database like
Oracle or DB2 instead, it's time to re-evaluate," says Rod. "PostgreSQL's
tremendously improved performance and ever-expanding feature set make
PostgreSQL competitive with even the highest-end database systems."
That lets us grab the press's attention with a mention of competing with
Oracle and DB2 (which I guarentee you will generate at least one headline)
without making specific claims we can't defend without legal counsel.
--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco