PostgreSQL 8.1 Available

atani writes "PostgreSQL 8.1 has been posted, though not officially announced as of this moment. This release includes two-phased commits, improved SMP and overall performance, a new role system replaces the older user/group, autovacuum is now within the backend rather than a separate contrib module, and various improvements, performance enhancements, and bugfixes. " You can also read the developer notes for the popular database. One thing is clear- with the newest Postresql and MySql, you have much to choose from.

Comments

Re:Just installed Win32 version

[bigHairyDog]

That's the PostGreSQL philosophy - don't hide the complexity. MySQL did that, and was rewarded by popularity and a generation of people who didn't understand database administration. PostGreSQL makes you pay attention to these options, and educates you in the process.

Re:Postgresql for large databases

[Anonymous Coward]

Handling terabytes of data and 100s of millions of records with pgSql is nothing new.

For details, see

http://www.powerpostgresql.com/Downloads/terabytes _osc2005.pdf

Re:Congratulations to the PostgreSQL Team!

[jadavis]

For real multi-master clustering, I think there are commercial options availabile; but yes, it'll be nice when it's included.

Replication may never be "included", in the sense that it's a part of the core distribution. There's really no reason to have it there, and several reasons not to:
(1) New releases of the replication software would have to wait until a new release of PostgreSQL.
(2) There are many completely different things that go under the heading "replication" that are used in different situations, depending on how often you expect the connections to be up, whether you're replicating for redundancy or speed, etc. Often, a real situation will require using multiple types of replication.
(3) It puts an extra burden on the developers to maintain every line of code in every piece of replication software as well as the rest of the database.

What users really want is to have another well-maintained, BSD licensed project that achieves things not possible with Slony-I, PgPool, etc.

Re:/. Meta question: a wheelbarrow?

[amorico]

I assume it is from the William Carlos Williams Poem, Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

A database being the red wheelbarrow of course. Don't ask about the chickens.

Some ancient history

[jd]

The word "wheelbarrow" originates from the ancient burial mounds called barrows and are traditionally the same shape as the more ancient of these, called "long barrows". The common theme being dead stuff buried under large mounds of earth.

Databases are often used for dead projects, buried under large mounds of data. The parallel would seem to be pretty exact.

Re:Firebird already does all of this

[davegaramond]

I feel for the Firebird community, they probably do need more recognition and press. But then, maybe if they could release stuffs more often, they would get mentioned more often too.

It's hard to get more attention if your "competitors" are of PostgreSQL caliber. Postgres do major releases every 6-12 months and is getting better all the time at faster rate. It's getting picked up by companies and has the strongest open source support around it.

Meanwhile, when will FB 2.0-final be released? When will I be getting index longer than 240 (or was it in the order of 500) bytes? When will the documentation be half-decent?

I consider my decision to go with Postgres over Firebird several years ago was the best decision I've ever made.

Re:MySQL is more popular

[Anonymous Coward]

• 
  Postgres is generally better than MySQL (though MySQL is closing the gap) in terms of SQL standards compliance and RDBMS-type features. If you're implementing a true DB app, you should definitely give PostgreSQL a second look. But for a web forum, stick with MySQL.
  

For a web forum, it really doesn't matter if you use MySQL or PostgreSQL or Firebird or SQLLite. It's whatever your webhost supports.

I myself do use Postgres as my backend for my hobby webforums but (1) I wrote my own webforums, (2) I host my own servers and (3) I have many years of production experience using PostgreSQL in financial & vendor management apps.

Re:MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

[StrawberryFrog]

If poularity is your criterion, then why not run your website on MS Access, and allow only Internet explorer clients, while you listen to Britney Spears, drink coke and eat a big mac?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "dominant", since both databases are free, so neither takes sales from the other. Both are actively developed. PostgreSQL is IMHO better engineered and has more features, and has had them for longer. But postgreSQL has a reputation as not beeing as drool-proof as mySQL. I wouldn't know, I've been using all kinds of databases for a long time; I find PostgreSQL quite pleasant, and mySQL painfully juvenile.