Postgres Beats MySql, Interbase, And Proprietary DBs

Mike writes: "An independent organization tested Postgres 7 vs. MySql, Interbase, and two leading commercial databases using the ANSI SQL Standard Scalable And Portable benchmark and found that Postgres was the clear winner. In fact, Postgres was the only open source database to offer similar performance to the two commercial applications. The results are detailed here."

Comments

Re:Let's hear it for lie, damn lies, and benchmark

[FattMattP]

They compared the bleeding edge postgres (7.0) with the old-as-heck mysql (3.22) - they're now up to revision *22* of the development series for mysql - that's a pretty huge amount of changes. I would have been much more impressed with this if they had ran the comparison between 3.23.22 and 7.0.

Postgres 7.0 is the current stable release. According to http://www.mysql.com/downloads, MySQL v3.22 is the current stable release and v3.23 is the current beta release of MySQL. Given that, I can't blame them for not testing a stable product versus a beta product.

Even if there have been "a pretty huge amount of changes" as you state, it's still marked as a beta product. As for myself, I wouldn't use a beta product in a production environment until it's been marked as stable by the developers, no matter how stable other people might say it is. That's why I use MySQL v3.22 right now. If something is marked beta, there is more than likely a reason for it. It would be irresponsible of me to risk using it and risk losing customer's data. I'm sure other businesses and individuals can't afford to take those risks with their data either.

A book is coming out soon

[Wee]

I don't know if it's a good book, but there's a book called PostgreSQL by Jeff Perkins coming out in October. Fatbrain didn't have a description, but Amazon did:

PostgreSQL is the perfect book for you if you use PostgreSQL at work and on your Web sites wherever you expose data on the Web using Linux and Apache. It covers the new features of PostgreSQL as well as the PostgreSQL processor, which defines all necessary objects in a database, to get acquainted with SQL and to test ideas and verify joins and queries. Database developers for corporate and Web applications will find this book useful. It is geared toward intermediate to advanced developers who have designed and administered databases, but not PostgreSQL. The accompanying CD includes PostgreSQL, plus sample databases and modules.

If you just want to use it (and not admin it), O'Reilly's Programming the Perl DBI has some info on accessing a PostgreSQL DB (hint: it's not that different from any other DB when seen through DBI). Oh yeah, MySQL & mSQL, also from O'Reilly has a little bit about it (but not very much at all). I guess readmes, man pages and HOW-TOs are your friends for the next couple months.

If you're really curious, throw it on a test machine and (if possible) "port" some apps to use Postgres instead of MySQL or whatever. You probably won't reach any real conclusion (or do nearly enough work to justify moving to another DB for a production environment), but the effort will very likely get you very familiar with how it works, how to set it up, how to admin it, its performance, its quirks, etc. That's both a good and a bad thing, BTW... :-)

-B

Re:details?

[The Man]

However, that sort of licensing term is unlikely to stand up in court. It'd be nice if someone with at least half a testicle would stand up and tell the world that the terms are bullshit and most likely illegal.

I benchmarked Oracle and Microsoft-SQL against one another for box weight (that is, how heavy the software, packaging, and associated manuals are) and found that the differences are scale-dependent. Overall I found that Oracle was heavier.

Go ahead, guys, sue me. Good luck; you'll need it.

There's no such thing.

[java.bean]

There's no such thing as free speech. Haven't you noticed that the First Amendment to the Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech, except in those cases where it is deemed to harm corporate profits, [...]

Libel, slander, copyright trademark or patent violations, licensing agreements, saying posting or printing anything that someone with more money and more lawyers than you doesn't like...Free speech is a dream. --jb

Interbase

[Kiro]

Interbase fits right into a Linux environment.
Borland has just recently released its source code and so what we have now is an open-source, royalty-free, Borland-quality database to use and abuse.

Download links are:
Client and server source code
Server Linux binaries

From personal experience, Interbase is perfect for a tight budget situation where you need to server a medium-size userbase.

--
Kiro

MySQL

[trippd6]

The reason MySQL was slower was because they used the ODBC drivers. The MySQL ODBC drivers are known to be significately slower then the native drivers. Although I do agree it is probably the best way to test a large number of databases using ODBC drivers, I would like to see the results of all the databases tested using native drivers.

-Tripp

Re:2 leading commercial databases

[carlos_benj]

Why do you suppose the "2 leading commercial databases" were never named? It would be interesting to know what they were

The article points out that the companies prohibit publishing benchmark results when you buy their product.

those unmentioned proprietary dbms...

[jhoffmann]

everybody wants to know what they are. one has to be MS SQL server... why else would they even have mentioned NT server? every other database will run on linux. the other is probably oracle, just given ned lilly's discussion of them on the postgres mailing list, although i wouldn't be surprised if it was something else. here's a reference to a message from ned:

http://www.postgre sql.org/mhonarc/pgsql-general/2000-06/msg00390.htm l

Re:Yes MySQL now does transactions

[sjames]

t was added a while back. And still, mysql (when using MyISAM) is a lot faster than competing databases. Sorry I've done my independant benchmarks in the "real-world".

Too bad the transactions only work with Berkeley DB tables (not MyISAM).

I tried MySQL again last week to see if I could certify it for use on a failover cluster (logging and transactions are VERY important for that!). I didn't even get to the part about simulating a node failure before it flunked the test (which postgreSQL passed). I found that sometimes it would silently ignore BEGIN and ROLLBACK. That may be a Beta issue, so I'll look again when it's released. If the version in use doesn't have the support for Berkeley tables compiled in, it will silently create a MyISAM table instead. Then, it will silently ignore any transaction commands (BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK).

It's be one thing if it simply failed with errors returned, but silent failure to use transactions is the stuff nightmares are made of! I'd actually rather have it core dump than do that.

Re:Good book on postgres?

[Jason Earl]

There is a PDF for the upcoming Addison-Wesley book, by none other than PostgreSQL's Bruce Momjian, available here.