[Discuss] Rob Conery's critique of MySQL?

[markw at mohawksoft.com (Mark Woodward)]

On 07/22/2012 02:34 PM, Rich Braun wrote:
> Greg Rundelett wrote:
>> A default installation of MySQL is dangerously too
>> flexible to be trusted with enterprise data.
> At #185 on the Fortune 500 list, I'm thinking that my current employer's
> systems probably contain what can be called "enterprise data".  And it's true
> that I'm not going to run this data center with a default installation of
> MySQL; it's already amply tweaked-out based on past experiences at a company
> roughly 1/500th the size (but with a much-busier and more complex database).
>
> I'd love to go back and propose PostgreSQL as an alternative--it's not too
> late, the place up until July 2012 is an Oracle shop--but there are other
> criteria like our ability to hire expertise, whether the backup and failover
> strategies are robust, etc.  I have a unique opportunity to influence a key
> decision in a "green-field" situation at a very large company and I'd love to
> have more arguments than just "the defaults can't be trusted" or "sloppy
> programmers could cause more trouble with this tool" than some other.
It doesn't matter, really!  Every tool you use will have issues. If you 
show up the guy who chose f, there will come a day when you look like an 
idiot for replacing it with PostgreSQL.

That being said, my personal opinion is that *anyone* who chooses MySQL 
without a clear and present "Only MySQL will with our apps" requirement, 
is not much of a DBA and a terrible engineer.

I've been using PostgreSQL for over 15 years and it is one of those 
tools that I keep in my belt because it is just amazing at how easy it 
makes otherwise difficult tasks. Every year it keeps getting better. I 
have been on far too many projects where some guy chooses MySQL because 
everyone else does and stuff that would be trivial in PostgreSQL are a 
nightmare.  On the flip side, I have yet to see something that would be 
easy with MySQL that isn't equally as easy using PostgreSQL.

As I tell my son, "You have to own your opinions. Merely accepting 
someone else's opinion isn't good enough. Believe what you want, but 
make sure you understand what you believe and why."



>
> -rich
>
>
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