Re: Cleaning up the Download options

Hi,

On 5/8/19 11:13 AM, Dave Page wrote:
> I've just reviewed all the download options on the website. A number are
> out of date or have other issues, so I think we need to have a cleanup:

Thanks for going through these!

As for what I've said publicly for many years, my general feeling is
"less is more" when it comes to installers and ensuring the process of
getting PostgreSQL installed is easy for our users: we want to be able
to offer packages that support the installation mechanisms for each
environment, as long as they are maintained. For the purposes of this
exercise, I'll get off of my soapbox at that statement :)

With that said:

> Primary downloads:
>
> - postgresql.org <http://postgresql.org> packages are up to date.
> - EDB installers are up to date.
> - BigSQL installers are up to date.
> - postgres.app is up to date.
> - Fink is a release behind on 9.4 through 10, and doesn't carry 11 at
> all as far as I can tell.
> - MacPorts is up to date.
> - The Homebrew link seems to go to a download site which after many
> clicks gives me the Windows installer from EDB(!). I've fixed that now.
> The packages appear to be a release behind on all supported branches.
>
> Thoughts on whether we should make any changes to the Fink and Brew
> distributions? We used to require that the primary downloads be
> maintained on our schedule, so by rights they should be removed.

Based on downthread comments, it sounds like we leave Brew and get rid
of Fink, though see note below.

>
> Secondary (third party) downloads:
>
> - LiveCD - this hasn't been updated since 9.6 in December 2016. It
> should be removed.
> - 2UDA - This hasn't been updated since May 2018, and is currently
> carrying 11beta1, 10.4, 9.6.9 and 9.5.13. I think this should be removed.
>
> - TurnKey - Deploying this requires signing up to their service. I
> eventually tracked down the manifest file for their images and found
> they ship 9.4.6. This should be removed.

If these are not being maintained, they should be removed.

However, before we do any removals, perhaps we reach out to all of the
package maintainers to give them a chance to say "Yes we're no longer
supporting it?"

> - BitNami images are up to date.
>
> Comments etc? I'm out from EOD until Tuesday, but will review any
> comments somewhen after then, and make changes as appropriate (including
> following my own suggestions if noone disagrees with them :-p ).

+1 to Justin's comment downthread on referencing the container packages
from DockerHub, though for the time being I'd treat it as "3rd Party
Dist." as we don't actually validate those packages in any way nor are

This gets into a larger topic that I may (read: will) broach at PGCon
(and what I feel this is leading to) is to create a design for the
Downloads page that respects & uses the hierarchy you've developed but
gives it a bit more modern feel. I've had some thoughts for how to carry
this out and looking forward to discussing more.