MySQL Negative Direction · 18 April 2008, 08:57 by trickykid
So when MySQL was bought by Sun, it was more of a negative feeling than positive. Honestly I feel MySQL is a good database for small PHP web applications. It sure is the highly popular choice and it’s hard to not find a blog, CMS or any other thing written in PHP that doesn’t support MySQL. It’s harder to find one that can use PostgreSQL or any other database for the backend.
Now this is something I expected from Sun. If you haven’t already read it, MySQL is now planning on closing some of the source by placing features into the Enterprise product you buy from them. Have a read here.
These features will not be included into the Community Edition they offer, which usually is the same, just lacks the support, etc.
Honestly though, if you have to pick a database for a personal website, MySQL is fine and will do the job. If you need something more commercial, go with PostgreSQL if you need a free open source alternative or if you choose to purchase, there’s Oracle, DB2 and plenty of others.
There is also Firebird which I’ve heard good things about but also heard it’s a nightmare to manage or implement. I guess you could compare it to choosing Qmail over Postfix or Sendmail when choosing an MTA.
Honestly though I would love to switch my own site to use PostgreSQL but not sure if TextPattern supports it. Perhaps it could be a project to convert. I think with the direction MySQL is heading, PostgreSQL is starting to become a more viable option for PHP and other developers that use a free open source database.
I guess I could try to pressure Patrick Volkerding to start bundling PostgreSQL with Slackware, it’d be nice addition to have a choice over MySQL.
Yes, also there’s SQLite for a simple, no-frills database. SQLite is much better for websites too, I feel and because it’s now standard with PHP 5, more CMSes will use SQLite in the future.
• hari 18 April 2008, 11:06 #So it does look like Textpattern is in experimental support for PostgreSQL in their 4.1 branch not released as of yet. Once that hits stable, I’m most likely going to switch the backend.
• drew 18 April 2008, 12:41 #Commenting is closed for this article.