Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Community
Oracle and SQL Server don't have a community. Please understand when I say that,
I mean that the chance that you will get to talk to a developer of the core database is
about the same as your chance of winning the lottery. By the time you do, it's probably
because you found a bug so heinous that it couldn't be ignored, and the only person
who can understand your report is the guy that wrote the code in question. They have
paid technical support, and that support has proven in my experience to be generally
competent, but not stellar. I have had to work around the problem that I originally re-
quested help with about 40 percent of the time.
Contrast that to MySQL and PostgreSQL, where just about anybody can speak to just
about anybody else all day long. Many of the core developers of both the platforms
can be found on IRC, met at conventions, contacted for contract development work,
and for the most part, bribed remarkably easily with beer (hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge,
nudge).
They are actively concerned with the health of the overall community, and will answer
just about any kind of question you can ask. Even if the question has a very tenuous
relationship to database development. My personal experience is that the Post-
greSQL team has more core developers readily available more often than MySQL.
They are also more personally available at conventions and meetings.
Did I mention they like beer?
