[Maia-users] Postgres vs Mysql

[Robert LeBlanc]

Alexandre Ghisoli wrote:

> From my own experience, PostgreSQL is a *real* database system, and  
> in the DB world, performances and data security (and data integrity)  
> are impacted by a lot of parameters.
> 
> Look, MySQL was designed for low demand systems, and has grow much  
> more than the initial design could allow. So, they have worked well to  
> add stuff (and uses Berkley DB as transactional engine).

Really, neither PostgreSQL nor MySQL can be called "real" database
systems; neither of them is on the same level as enterprise databases
like Oracle or IBM DB2.  That said, they don't cost $25k either, and
most of us don't need the full power of an enterprise-class DBMS.

Both PostgreSQL and MySQL suffer from some "implementational quirks" due
to their individual histories and the motivations that their development
teams had when they began their designs.  Things that were important to
one team were less important to the other--their priorities were ordered
differently, in other words.  Consequently the two products have their
strengths and weaknesses in different areas.

Mark Martinec observed recently on the amavis-users list
(<http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=amavis-user&m=115858769827556&q=raw>)
that:

"For Bayes, a MySQL 4.x database works faster than a PostgreSQL 8.1.x
database, not sure why."

However, he also added:

"in my experience the maintenance operations (purging old records) work
much faster in PostgreSQL 8.1.x than in MySQL 4.1.x."

Personally, I suspect that either database could do as well as the
other, if it were properly tuned.  Most of us just install the database
packages and make minor configuration edits to get them working, but we
rarely spend the time tuning them to perform at their best for the types
of applications we have in mind.  If I'm right about that, then your
choice of database may come down to which one you're most comfortable
tuning.

-- 
Robert LeBlanc <rjl at renaissoft.com>
Renaissoft, Inc.
Maia Mailguard <http://www.maiamailguard.com/>

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