Monday, August 4, 2008

Infoworld Picks MySQL as Best Database

Infoworld published the 2008 Bossies, Best Of Open Source Software. There are 8 categories and none of them are database:

  • Collaboration
  • Developer tools
  • Enterprise applications
  • Networking
  • Platforms and middleware
  • Productivity applications
  • Security
  • Storage

I had to look through several of them before I found the database category under Platforms and middleware. Slide 4 is the magic slide:

It says:

Database

While SQLite3 is extremely convenient for development and testing databases, and PostgreSQL has powerful Generalized Search Tree indexes and is very close to being enterprise-ready, is the choice for many Web sites thanks to its excellent read performance, transparent support for large text and binary objects, and incredibly easy administration. Stored procedures, functions, triggers, and updateable views were added to MySQL in version 5, overcoming the largest technical objections to its deployment at many sites. MySQL also has a large, helpful user base, and some poster-child deployments including eBay, Yahoo, and Craigslist.

I'm not sure why SQLLite would even be on the list. There are plenty of other OSDBs that I would put my bets on before SQLLite. Not that SQLLite is bad, it's just not a "best of" kind of thing. I don't imagine the Postgres folks are too happy at the "also ran" placement. "Close to being enterprise-ready", ouch.

I have to agree that MySQL has a large, helpful user base. I actually think that is one of the best things about MySQL.

LewisC

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1 comment:

Bill Karwin said...

A successful product is a combination of viable technology and effective marketing.

I learned that lesson well, when I worked for Borland on the InterBase RDBMS product. You might ask, "The who product?" Exactly my point!

MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite are the only open-source RDBMS products that are widely known, so these should be considered the contenders with respect to marketing.