> The last piece is, can PGSQL meet
> MSSQL, or at least be in the same ballpark.
Yes. Depending on the size of your database and the loading on the web
server, I would expect that performance is acceptable now. If you can
tell us the approximate size of your intended databases then it is
likely others can tell you they are already running something that size.
We have a major improvement in table locking for concurrent access
coming in the next release (v6.5) which we expect will offer significant
improvements in speed in a multi-client environment. afaik we don't have
any numbers yet, but I think there are a few folks out there with the
right setup to simulate a large number of clients. When Vadim sez "go",
we should try running some benchmark comparisons against v6.4.
I ran some row inserting benchmarks a year or two ago and (I recall)
found that I saw ~50InsertsPerSecond on both my Alpha/DUnix/Ingres
installation and on my i686/Linux/Postgres box. These were basically
single-client tests. There may be some more info in our mailing list
archives.
Another performance consideration is that linux takes fewer resources
from the machine than does WindowsXX, so you can donate the extra to
Postgres ;)
- Tom