> > I would like to have your opinions about open source databases versus > > commercial ones. I had a _serious_ debate with some of my colleagues > > about open source in general but when I started to compare mysql to > > oracle, they literally fired at me as if I had made a blasphemy... They > > are stating that Oracle is above any comparison and that it is the must > > in the universe of relational databases.
As well they should. There's nothing wrong with open-source databases, it's just that MySQL doesn't qualify. It doesn't fulfill hardly ANY of the requirements of a relational database, like views, updatable views, subselects, triggers, custom functions/procedures, and other such things. Although it has finally started supporting transactions, I don't know if it supports fully serializable transactions. I would suggest before making recommendations on databases, you pick up one of the suggested books on http://www.dbdebunk.com/ Open Source databases are great. Just choose a real one like PostgreSQL or SAP-DB. Firebird may be a decent one, but I don't know much about it. > > Since, I am searching some objective informations in order to classify > > these databases. I found (and was surprise to find) that the real > > alternative to oracle were rather postgresql than mysql: when comparing > > the features. Don't forget SAP-DB. The main difference between PostgreSQL and Oracle is manageability. With Oracle, I can split up my table where all of the values where id>30000 are on disk A, and all of the values wher id<=30000 are on disk B, thus allowing full table scans to go at double speed. With Postgres, the best you can do is store different tables on different disks, and even that is a bit hacky. The nice thing about Postgres is that it is much easier to tune. After you get done changing the hideously low default values in their configuration file, it does pretty well itself. Using the "explain" command you can even have the optimizer tell you why it performed a certain query a certain way. Note that the defaults on Postgres are set for 80s-era machines - so that it will work out-of-the-box for all configurations. You should ALWAYS modify those values before doing tests. Anyway, PostgreSQL is VERY quick and VERY snappy. With a bunch of work, you can even get some replication on it. PostgreSQL also has a really nice rewriting system which allows for very intricate updateable views. I do not know if Oracle has as good of a system here, although I think Oracle is SQLXX compliant while PostgreSQL is not. As to benchmarks, Oracle doesn't allow the release of benchmarks without the approval of the marketing department. Doing otherwise is a violation of their licensing agreements, and they can sue your pants off. Likewise with SQL Server. Now, if you want Oracle's manageability, you can use SAP-DB. In fact, it has an Oracle 7 compatibility mode, which allows you to basically use your Oracle DBAs for MySQL stuff. However, SAP-DB is terrible to set up. Oracle also has the ability to link tables on separate database systems. PostgreSQL does not have this, but I'm not sure about SAP-DB. Personally, I would use PostgreSQL any day of the week, because I'm not a big fan of paying full-time DBAs, and Postgres, although has fewer management features, more or less self-optimizes. However, for extremely intensive workloads, Oracle would probably be a better choice. For example, the travel industry is probably well off that they use Oracle over PostgreSQL, but most of the rest of us are probably better off with PostgreSQL. Jon > > > > But I didn't find any head to head comparison between open > > source/commercial databases. > > > > Do you know any benchmark results that made this kind of comparison? > > > > Thanks a lot for any suggestion. > > > > And again, my apologizes if this is not the right place to ask such > > questions. > > > > Best regards, > > Kader. > > > > > > > > > -- > redhat-list mailing list > unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list > -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
