Q: What is the current version of PostgreSQL?
A: 8.3, which was released February 4, 2008.
Q: 8.3? Does that mean it's a minor release?
A: No. Because of the long history of our project the first two decimals are
major releases. Thus 7.0, 8.1 and 8.2 were all major releases. Minor
releases have numbers like 8.2.5. This is similar to how Linux and Apache
number their versions. If we incremented the first digit for every major
release, we'd be up to Version 18.
Q: How is PostgreSQL licensed? How much does it cost?
A: PostgreSQL is released under the BSD license. There is no fee, even for use in commercial software products. Please see http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence
Q: How many developers work on PostgreSQL?
A: About 200. As with other open source projects, of course, we depend on hundreds of community members for documentation, translations, advocacy, conferences, website development, infrastructure, and peer-to-peer support.
Q: How many PostgreSQL users are there, worldwide?
A: Our wide distribution through the open source world and liberal licensing make that a difficult question to answer with any accuracy. A previous version, 8.0, had an estimated one million downloads within a seven months of release. However, most users get PostgreSQL with a Linux distribution, or with some of the many other products, OSS software, and hardware devices that include PostgreSQL. SDMagazine in a survey in summer 2004 estimated us as the 5th most popular SQL database system in the US for new projects, and many people have called us the 2nd most popular major database system in Japan.
Q: What company owns PostgreSQL?
A: None. We are an unincorporated association of volunteers and companies who share code under the BSD license. The PostgreSQL project involves more than a dozen companies who either support PostgreSQL contributors or directly contribute corporate projects to our repository. Our major corporate sponsors are on the sponsors page, and there are many more companies who contribute to the project in minor ways.
Q: Where can people get support for PostgreSQL?
A: There are several companies which provide paid support for PostgreSQL. Most of them are regional in nature. People should contact the nearest regional contact volunteer to be connected with one or more companies, or check our professional services list.
Q: What's the relationship between the PostgreSQL Project, EnterpriseDB, PostgreSQL Inc., SRA, Greenplum, Sun Microsystems and others?
A: The PostgreSQL project enjoys the support of multiple companies who sell projects or services built with PostgreSQL, and in turn contribute code, money and staff time to the project. None of them "own" PostgreSQL, nor is and individual company responsible for PostgreSQL code development. This is the same as Linux, Apache or FreeBSD.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to MySQL?
A: This is a topic that can start several hours of discussion. As a quick summary, MySQL is the "popular, easy-to-use" database, and PostgreSQL is the "feature-rich, standards-compliant" database. Beyond that, each database user should make their own evaluation; open source software makes doing your own comparison very easy.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Oracle/DB2/MS SQL Server/Informix?
A: Our feature set is generally considered to be very competitive with other leading SQL RDBMSes. Certainly there are features some of them have which we don't, and the reverse is true. To date, only a few benchmarks have been published showing PostgreSQL to be within 10-30% of proprietary competitors. However, we have had many users migrate from other database systems – primarily Oracle and Informix – and they are completely satisfied with the performance of their PostgreSQL systems.
Q: Can we talk to some of these users?
A: Please contact press@postgresql.org and our press volunteers will try to arrange a contact.
Q: Does PostgreSQL Support 64-bit Computing?
A: Yes. In fact, we've supported 64-bit systems for at least 10 years, just like a lot of other Unix and POSIX software. We do not yet support 64-bit Windows, however.
Q: Are there any published benchmarks for PostgreSQL?
A: To date there is one: a SpecJAppserver2004 benchmark, which at time of publication was within 10% of the leading commercial SQL RDBMS. The community is working with our corporate sponsors to publish further benchmarks with other agencies and at higher levels of performance.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Ingres? Is there a relationship between the two projects?
A: Currently, we have a shared history but no shared code with Ingres. Beyond that, we have had little contact with the new Ingres, Inc. and are unable to evaluate it.
Q: Does PostgreSQL have replication?
A: Yes, currently we have a half-dozen different replication tools, depending on the user's purpose and platform. This is limited to master-slave replication in stable production projects. Multi-master replication is available in the new unstable project Bucardo as well as in various clustering tools.
Q: When will PostgreSQL get database server clustering?
A: That depends on what kind of clustering you're seeking. The open source projects pgCluster and ____cluster are available, as well as proprietary tools BizgresMPP, GridSQL, and Uni/Cluster. pgPool2 is serious development and should have releases any day now, and SkyTools are available in beta. Also, PostgreSQL is supported by filesystem-based clustering systems for failover, including ones from Red Hat, Microsoft, Veritas and Sun.
Q: When will 8.4 come out?
A: Historically, PostgreSQL has released approximately every 12 months and there is no desire in the community to change from that pattern. So expect 8.4 sometime in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Q: What features will 8.4 have?
A: As always, we can't be certain what will go in and what won't; the project has strict quality standards that not all patches can make before deadline. All we can tell you is what's being worked on, which includes: SQL-compliant updatable views, further performance improvements and reductions in database maintenance, upgrade-in-place, additional SMP scalability, autonomous transactions, and PSM stored procedures. By the time 8.4 is released, though, this feature list will have changed considerably.
Q: How do you pronounce PostgreSQL