Database land - postgres scales nicely.
rzwitserloot posted in programming on December 2nd, 2006
There are plenty of choices, but as a rule I advise Postgresql. It supports a lot of fancy SQL, it has all the transactional goods you need to make sure the app keeps working even after deployment (yes, I mean you, PHP kids!) and it’s really, no strings, free.
I’m also aware, largely by way of the experience of my roommate with it, that oracle is a giant steaming turd that exists today only because ‘no one got fired for using oracle’.
One thing I have been wondering, though, is how well postgres scales for the really huge projects. Turns out postgres scales nicely in a real-world scenario. Though I wonder if those hacks they speak of have been contributed back.
So, just FYI, if you need a quick database solution, give postgres a try. There’s a particularly convenient mac os x installer for postgresql here thrown together by a company that uses it a lot. Even gives you some (admittedly crude) GUI tools to toy with the DB. So far I’m a happy camper using it.
FOLLOWUP: Benchmark: Postgresql beats the stuffing out of mysql, speedwise - that really nails it.
FOLLOWUP #2: Postgres wins, big, again - If you have a database independent implementation, try it yourself. Switch to postgres (or if you’re already there, mysql) and do a comparison to the raw number that is most important to your app (e.g. for webapps, page load times).
December 3rd, 2006 at 0:46
Definitely! PostgreSQL is the closest thing to a real database I’m aware of in the open source world. Feature-wise it’s pretty close to Oracle XE, without the silly license restrictions.
However, in some Java-based projects we used derby instead because it’s just much easier to install in a portable way (when you’ve already gone through the hassles of creating a portable Java installer)
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:22
Actually, in the threadless webserver I built, derby ships out of the box, just so that the one download jar ‘just works’. You can change it in the settings if you do have a postgres.
Derby’s missing a lot of features in the land of model modification though. Basically, adding columns is not practical, which is a pain, because changing the db model does happen.