Re: New press faq for release

On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 11:02:32PM -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
> People,
>
> In preparation for the 8.3 release, here's an updated press faq.  Please 
> don't commit it until we actually do release.  Thanks!
>
> --Josh

>    Frequently Asked Questions
> 
>                            Frequently Asked Questions
> 
>    Q: What is the current version of PostgreSQL?
>    A: 8.3, which was released February 4, 2008.
> 
>    Q: 8.3? Does that mean it's a minor release?
>    A: No. Because of the long history of our project the first two
>    decimals are major releases. Thus 7.0, 8.1 and 8.2 were all major
>    releases. Minor releases have numbers like 8.2.5. This is similar to
>    how Linux and Apache number their versions. If we incremented the first
>    digit for every major release, we'd be up to Version 18.
> 
>    Q: How is PostgreSQL licensed? How much does it cost?
>    A: PostgreSQL is released under the BSD license. There is no fee, even
>    for use in commercial software products. Please see
>    [1]http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence
> 
>    Q: How many developers work on PostgreSQL?
>    A: About 200. As with other open source projects, of course, we depend
>    on hundreds of community members for documentation, translations,
>    advocacy, conferences, website development, infrastructure, and
>    peer-to-peer support.
> 
>    Q: How many PostgreSQL users are there, worldwide?
>    A: Our wide distribution through the open source world and liberal
>    licensing make that a difficult question to answer with any accuracy. A
>    previous version, 8.0, had an estimated one million downloads within a
>    seven months of release. However, most users get PostgreSQL with a
>    Linux distribution, or with some of the many other products, OSS
>    software, and hardware devices that include PostgreSQL. SDMagazine in a
>    survey in summer 2004 estimated us as the 5th most popular SQL database
>    system in the US for new projects, and many people have called us the
>    2nd most popular major database system in Japan.
> 
>    Q: What company owns PostgreSQL?
>    A: None. We are an unincorporated association of volunteers and
>    companies who share code under the BSD license. The PostgreSQL project
>    involves more than a dozen companies who either support PostgreSQL
>    contributors or directly contribute corporate projects to our
>    repository. Our major corporate sponsors are on the [2]sponsors page,
>    and there are many more companies who contribute to the project in
>    minor ways.
> 
>    Q: Where can people get support for PostgreSQL?
>    A: There are several companies which provide paid support for
>    PostgreSQL. Most of them are regional in nature. People should contact
>    the nearest regional contact volunteer to be connected with one or more
>    companies, or check our [3]professional services list.
> 
>    Q: What's the relationship between the PostgreSQL Project,
>    EnterpriseDB, PostgreSQL Inc., SRA, Greenplum, Sun Microsystems and
>    others?
>    A: The PostgreSQL project enjoys the support of multiple companies who
>    sell projects or services built with PostgreSQL, and in turn contribute
>    code, money and staff time to the project. None of them "own"
>    PostgreSQL, nor is and individual company responsible for PostgreSQL                    ^^^^^^
This should probably read, "is an"

>    code development. This is the same as Linux, Apache or FreeBSD.
> 
>    Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to MySQL?
>    A: This is a topic that can start several hours of discussion. As a
>    quick summary, MySQL is the "popular, easy-to-use" database, and
>    PostgreSQL is the "feature-rich, standards-compliant" database. Beyond
>    that, each database user should make their own evaluation; open source
>    software makes doing your own comparison very easy.

Might mention licensing issue and project vs product.

>    Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Oracle/DB2/MS SQL Server/Informix?
>    A: Our feature set is generally considered to be very competitive with
>    other leading SQL RDBMSes. Certainly there are features some of them
>    have which we don't, and the reverse is true. To date, only a few
>    benchmarks have been published showing PostgreSQL to be within 10-30%
>    of proprietary competitors. However, we have had many users migrate
>    from other database systems – primarily Oracle and Informix – and they
>    are completely satisfied with the performance of their PostgreSQL
>    systems.
> 
>    Q: Can we talk to some of these users?
>    A: Please contact press@postgresql.org and our press volunteers will
>    try to arrange a contact.
> 
>    Q: Does PostgreSQL Support 64-bit Computing?
>    A: Yes. In fact, we've supported 64-bit systems for at least 10 years,
>    just like a lot of other Unix and POSIX software. We do not yet support
>    64-bit Windows, however.
> 
>    Q: Are there any published benchmarks for PostgreSQL?
>    A: To date there is one: a [4]SpecJAppserver2004 benchmark, which at
>    time of publication was within 10% of the leading commercial SQL RDBMS.
>    The community is working with our corporate sponsors to publish further
>    benchmarks with other agencies and at higher levels of performance.
> 
>    Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Ingres? Is there a relationship
>    between the two projects?
>    A: Currently, we have a shared history but no shared code with Ingres.
>    Beyond that, we have had little contact with the new Ingres, Inc. and
>    are unable to evaluate it.
> 
>    Q: Does PostgreSQL have replication?
>    A: Yes, currently we have a half-dozen different replication tools,
>    depending on the user's purpose and platform. This is limited to
>    master-slave replication in stable production projects. Multi-master
>    replication is available in the new unstable project Bucardo as well as
>    in various clustering tools.
> 
>    Q: When will PostgreSQL get database server clustering?
>    A: That depends on what kind of clustering you're seeking. The open
>    source projects pgCluster and ____cluster are available, as well as
>    proprietary tools BizgresMPP, GridSQL, and Uni/Cluster. pgPool2 is

PgPool-II has been out for some time.

>    serious development and should have releases any day now, and
>    SkyTools are available in beta.  Also, PostgreSQL is supported by
>    filesystem-based clustering systems for failover, including ones
>    from Red Hat, Microsoft, Veritas and Sun.

This is at best misleading, as it leaves out the PITR needed to make
it work.

>    Q: When will 8.4 come out?
>    A: Historically, PostgreSQL has released approximately every 12 months
>    and there is no desire in the community to change from that pattern. So
>    expect 8.4 sometime in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Q1 2009 seems more realistic at this point.

>    Q: What features will 8.4 have?
>    A: As always, we can't be certain what will go in and what won't; the
>    project has strict quality standards that not all patches can make
>    before deadline. All we can tell you is what's being worked on, which
>    includes: SQL-compliant updatable views, further performance
>    improvements and reductions in database maintenance, upgrade-in-place,
>    additional SMP scalability, autonomous transactions, and PSM stored
>    procedures. By the time 8.4 is released, though, this feature list will
>    have changed considerably.
> 
>    Q: How do you pronounce PostgreSQL
>    A: post-GRES-que-ell, per this [5]audio file. Many people, however,
>    just say "post-GREZ".

Actually, it's POST-gress-cue-ELL or POST-gress.

Cheers,
David.
-- 
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> http://fetter.org/
Phone: +1 415 235 3778  AIM: dfetter666  Yahoo!: dfetter
Skype: davidfetter      XMPP: david.fetter@gmail.com

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