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MySQL Beats Commercial Databases in Labs Test
An anonymous reader writes "Many of the big players now offer free or 'light' versions of their databases, some would call them crippleware. Builder AU compared databases from Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and MySQL, and the open source offering came out on top."
I personally believe that sort of condition in a EULA is unenforcable (even assuming the EULA proper is enforcable - which I don't believe either), as it is anticompetitive. Either way, the test was done by an Australian company, and that could lend a legal hand by setting up international roadblocks to EULA enforcement.
So, look at the pages dedicated to MS SQL Express and IBM DB2. DB2 costs thousands of dollars, MS SQL Express is free. DB2 has a slightly superior feature set and additionally runs on Linux... and they rate it drastically higher, even though it's ridiculously expensive in comparison. Don't even get me started on the fact that the MS SQL version they tested was a beta (almost every Beta MS releases is far slower than the release versions, and contains tons of additional debugging code - VC# Express Betas were drastically slower than the release version of VC# Express.) Of course, none of this is really a suprise, since the 'labs test' is pretty obviously nothing of the sort.
And of course, absolutely no mention of stability, reliability, bugs, robustness, etc... what a suprise, considering that both MSSQL and MySQL are arguably far behind in those areas.
Where are the test cases? Where is the testing methodology? How about some explanation of particular cases where one solution didn't compare with the others, or where one solution excelled? This 'labs test' reads more like a sales pitch than anything resembling an actual test.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
IIRC, EULAs are considered void in Australia because it's a contract occuring after the monetary transaction. After you paid, there is no way additional conditions can be added.
When you buy downloadable software, you are given the chance to review the EULA before you enter your payment information. Should this ruling against EULAs stand up in court, I can see Amazon or foreign counterparts doing the same for boxed software under heavy pressure from major BSA publishers.
"But what about retail sales in person?" The United States has enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and has imposed identical conditions on Australia through a recent un-Free Trade Agreement. Under the DMCA, decrypting a copyrighted work is an exclusive right of the copyright owner. This means that a retail software transaction can now be decomposed into two separate offer-acceptance-consideration sequences: The first is a regular sale, where money is traded for a box containing a disc. The second is a license or licence to decrypt the installer, where your rights are traded for decryption during the install process. The disc is useful only as a toy until you enter into this second contract.
Even if this DMCA-based theory doesn't hold water, nothing stops a publisher from requiring all authorized retailers to make a working Internet terminal available to customers and putting a conspicuous notice on the packaging: "This sale is subject to your acceptance of terms and conditions displayed at http://eula.microsoft.com/windows/xp". In fact, this method has been upheld in a U.S. Court of Appeals.
PostgreSQL has its own problems. I have a simple table, with a couple bigint columns. Consider these two statements:
1. select * from tbl where id = 123;
2. select * from tbl where id = '123';
The second is nearly three orders of magnitude faster.
People have complained about this annoying gotcha for years.
And I'm equally tired of hearing from MySQL haters who bitch and bitch and bitch about how MySQL isn't worth shit and should never be used for anything, anywhere, ever. Need I remind you that the very site you're looking at runs on MySQL and handles literally millions of pageviews per day? OK, fine, I won't. How's this then: hundreds of the 33,000 employees where I work rely on MySQL daily, whether they know it or not. Phone lists, surveys, reporting apps, inventory databases, etc etc etc. MySQL does the job and does it just fine. It has not failed me once in all the years I've been using it.
And SQLite is better? Because it's ACID? HA! HA HA HA HA HA! GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK! That's the only buzzword it IS compliant with. Look at this:
Q: SQLite lets me insert a string into a database column of type integer!
A: This is a feature, not a bug. SQLite does not enforce data type constraints. [emphasis added]
and this:
Q: What is the maximum size of a VARCHAR in SQLite?
A: SQLite does not enforce the length of a VARCHAR. You can declare a VARCHAR(10) and SQLite will be happy to let you put 500 characters in it. And it will keep all 500 characters intact - it never truncates.
and this:
Q: Does SQLite support a BLOB type?
A: SQLite versions 3.0 and leter let you puts BLOB data into any column, even columns that are declared to hold some other type.
all this and more can be seen at http://www.sqlite.org/faq.html
"And Postgresql is far more robust and performs just as well."
And only recently ran natively under Windows. Sorry, but when you're in a company with 33k employees and a substantial IT department, you don't always get to pick your platform. MySQL was there, it worked, and it continues to do so. Why would I switch?
Let me make the required car analogy: a semi is several orders of magnitude more powerful than a 2WD pickup truck. A semi can haul more, and haul more further, and haul big loads more efficiently, and with a sleeper cab and two drivers can operate 24/7, and you can get refrigerated units to move food, etc etc etc. Why, then, are there millions of 2WD pickups sold? Are they just "shitty vehicles with lots of mindshare"? NO! It's because 99.9% of the population just wants to move a couch or go to Home Depot or something. Maybe it'll take a few trips to help a friend move, but even that takes fewer hours than getting a class-whatever license, plus pickups are easier to maneuver and park in apartment complex parking lots and residential neighborhoods, etc etc etc.
I'm not saying MySQL is better than everythinhg else. The fact is, databases and computers are SO capable now that even the WORST in the field is STILL more than 99% of people need. In other words, MySQL is Just Fine.
PS: MySQL is ACID when used with InnoDB tables which came out about 3 years ago. Time to update your troll.
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