Re: PostgreSQL Windows port strategy

>>>Vatamanescu Victor said:
> I don't really much care what's the OS our product is running on. I care muc
h about our product's high availability, speed, scalability etc. In the la
st month I saw on this list a lot of opinions regarding the differences be
tween various operating systems. I havent saw opinions regarding the funct
ionalities exposed by our direct competitors: other dmbs. Do we want to tr
ansform PostgreSQL in the next generation's OS and I am not aware?

PostgreSQL is what it is, which certainly is not an OS.

If PostgreSQL was 'Operating System' we wouldn't care much on what 'Operating
System' it runs, right?

But most of the things related to performance AND functionality of PostgreSQL
depend very much on what OS you use to build and run it on. (otherwise it
could well contain portions of the OS much like Oracle does :)

While I agree, that (any) Windows platform may be useful for a lot of things,
it's true that one should be wary of Windows, for things like software
development (due to it's unstable API), platform stability (I have yet to know
someone who didn't have to reinstall Windows every month or so), performance
(you can hardly explain to customers, why their new personal Windows
Workstation requires > 1 GHz processor, > 256 MB RAM etc while showing them
how a moderate PostgreSQL database server that could serve their entire
company can run on much older/slower/cheaper hardware).

There is nothing wrong in having nice Windows based GUI for accessing
databases, but turning a graphical workstation into database server is
something that has never worked in the computer history (the opposite has
happened from time to time).

Windows has lost the game when Microsoft decided to abandon support for
non-Intel CPUs in Windows NT (VMS actually).

> I can guarantee you good software can be written on Windows too. I can guara
ntee you that moving PostgreSQL on Windows is the best move PostgreSQL. I
can guarantee you a MMC Snap-In for PostgreSQL and a Visual Studio .NET ad
d-in for PostgreSQL can help PostgreSQL becomming a leader.

While enough was said in this list regarding the Windows port - nothing could
stop anyone to port an open-source database to whatever platform, including
Windows. The better the platform knowledge of the porting team, the better the
result. But 'moving' PostgreSQL to Windows won't happen.

> But discussions like "Windows is a B category platform" and "Windows will di
e tommorow" and "Linux is the best" won't lead us on a top position.

My personal favorite is BSD/OS and for what it matters, Windows cannot solve the kind of tasks, that BSD/OS solves for me. period.

Daniel

PS: I probably sound too anti-Microsoft biased, which is not true. I just don't care about Microsoft - I use Windows from time to time when someone sends me $(at)^#$&@*&#&*$-Microsoft-Office formatted document that will not open anywhere else. Windows also makes great launcher for my father's Heroes III game. ;-)

Well, I havent seen much that unstable API. If you saw something unstable please provide me source code that proves Windows API is unstable. Don't tell me about some "expert"'s oppinion: if you have a problem with Windows show it to me. We are not users here. I agree that Windows 95/98 was a sh..., but I have news for you: Windows is becomming stronger every day. In 1998-1999 we could talk about the dying Microsoft - they were null on the server platform and the growth of Linux seemed unlimited. Can you tell me that the situation is the same? Have you carrefully tested Windows 2003?

About reinstalling: at home I have a Pentium III 1 ghz workstation. OS: Windows XP. I have installed on it Visual Studio .NET, Visual Studio 6, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Cygwin, IIS, MSMQ etc etc(you got the picture). I installed it about 9 months ago (when I bought the hdd) and I dont have any trouble with it, I hadn't to reinstall it after a month...

By the way, DB2 has no problem working on Windows. I havent heard IBM calling Windows a "B category platform", on the contrary...

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