What can PostgreSQL learn from MySQL

There has been a lot of talk lately about PostgreSQL and what MySQL can learn from the PostgreSQL clan. We would like to look at the reverse of that. This article is a bit of a complement to Joshua Drake's What MySQL (and really, Sun) can learn from PostgreSQL.

First of all a lot of staunch advocates of PostgreSQL wonder what exactly is it that MySQLers see in that beast of a database or as Martin Mickos likes to call it The Ferrari of databases?

For example, as Magnus Hagander pointed out in A new MySQL gotcha and we pointed out in SQL Math Idiosyncracies, MySQL's casting behavior is shall we say odd. I won't even recount our frustrations with using their ODBC driver with the MySQL 5.0 incarnations, but that could be ignorance on our part. Zack Urlocker of Sun has espoused, the upcoming MySQL 5.1 will have no bugs so perhaps this along with other bug complaints is a moot point.

So why do people choose MySQL time and time again over PostgreSQL and why is PostgreSQL sometimes a hard sell? Some of what we are going to say is a bit tongue-in-cheek so please don't take offense.

MySQL is pervasive and ubiquitous

Being pervasive and ubiquitous is a huge selling point.

• It means you are already in the In crowd.
• It means System Admins already feel comfortable with you.
• It means common folk have heard of you.
• It means people feel comfortable enough with you that they are willing to build an ecosystem around you and ecosystems make you more ubiquitous and pervasive.

How did MySQL get to that point and what tricks can PostgreSQL borrow from that experience?

1. It ran natively on Windows before PostgreSQL did and Windows is a huge user-base especially for beta-testing. PostgreSQL has caught up there and is beginning to see the fruits of that labor.
2. Everywhere you look for Mac etc. there are already pre-compiled binaries. Again PostgreSQL is catching up there with the Yum repository, pre-compiled windows binaries and valiant efforts of people making binaries for Mac, Debian, SUSE available. More work needs to be done there to insure binaries/rpms for latest releases are available for most of the OSes PostgreSQL supports and popular add-ons.
3. MySQL is an easier install and easier to upgrade. As Joshua Drake pointed out in the above article, you can do in-place upgrades with MySQL, but really can't with PostgreSQL. Again PostgreSQL needs more work there. This is a huge plus for many ISPs and we know when many projects start out, they can't afford dedicated boxes so they rely on their ISPs to have these things already installed.
4. You can run MySQL on a USB stick (or at least for windows) easily without having to reboot your pc. Portability is huge. Take a look at Server2GO its quite a slick run on USB that allows you to run Apache, MySQL, PHP and edit data on USB as well. It is all nicely packaged and allows a brain-dead user to point and click to use it. We need that for PostgreSQL and it seems there are efforts going on in that area which is good. LiveCD comes close but doesn't quite make the cut.
5. A lot of people who used older versions of PostgreSQL have a bad taste in their mouth. People need to be reminded that PostgreSQL 6/7 of the past is vastly different from the PostgreSQL 8 series. You would think MySQL would have similar issues, but they seem to have less of that. That could be because official install repositories/ISPs have more updated versions of MySQL than PostgreSQL. Also MySQL has always been a relatively easy install and less threatening looking database for good or bad.
6. Of course there is safety in crowds. People don't like to stand-alone because its okay to be wrong if everyone is wrong, but really lonely if you stand wrongly alone. MySQL's dominance makes it more dominant except in situations such as Open Source GIS where PostgreSQL/PostGIS is still a clear winner over MySQL and the dominant database for that growing niche market.

PostgreSQL has a lot of selling points that MySQL lacks, but this is a talk about why MySQL is so great, so we'll save that talk for another day.

PostgreSQL people look like a gang of geeks and Martin Mickos looks polished

PostgreSQL clan is heavily loaded with geeks and the first thing that comes to at least my mind is geek when trying to summarize the generic face of a PostgreSQL user. This is a good thing from a development standpoint and for attracting great developers, but is bad when a large constituency you are trying to sell to are not geeks and they perceive your database as a thing that only a geek can use effectively. While we would like to think otherwise and at least think that its in vogue to be a geek, most people are not geeks. We need to sell more to the otherside of the fence - because like it or not - they are often the ones that make the decisions.

Martin Mickos is riding on what Leo likes to call People who look alike play together rule of social behavior. He is forced to wear a suit like most money-decision making people and looks comfortable in that outfit. He looks like a CEO. He might be a geek inside but he covers it well, and he gives you the polished feel that he can endure the torture of a CEO recounting his golf game or bragging about his greatness. Why is this important? Isn't it all an act? Yes it is an act, but it sends the message - I know how to act right - when to open my mouth and when to keep it shut. This is incredibly comforting to a generic CEO, CFO or CIO type. Yes it does often come down to he got the contract not because his technology was better but because he had a better suit on, got drunk on his own cool-aid and could finish a sentence without saying "Uhmm".

Martin Mickos balances Michael "Monty" Widenius disposition well, whereas a lot of PostgreSQL folk look and sound like Monty with very few balancing Martin's to level the see-saw.

We don't have a very strong prominent non-geek face to offset this imbalance. We need a CEO friendly imposter. I would say the closest are some of the EnterpriseDb folk, but EnterpriseDb is a commercial offering so that can only get the clan so far.

It would help if core PostgreSQL had a prim and proper looking figure or a comedian like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Marc Fleury (founder of JBOSS), or geekesses in disguise like Kim Polese (the woman behind SpikeSource, Marimba, and Java) who exudes subtle persuasion abilities or a quietly confident woman such as Diane Greene, CEO and CoFounder of VMWare. Some PostgreSQL folks come to mind that can be molded into some of those type figures, but they still have that geek suit on (the T-shirt and the long hair that appeals to geeky sysadmins who are not always allowed to make decisions). Steve Jobs is a geek, but one with style. His brat geek kid who never grew up and with an obsession with clean interfaces that look good is great marketing. Similarly Larry Ellison's farcical obsession with wardrobe, racing, womanizing and destroying competitors is equally entertaining. Marc Fleury seems to be a compromise between the Steve and Larry personalities and some others mixed in. He has an air of mystique, but he knows when to behave as well.

Kim Polese perfectly complemented the advanced geekism of James Gosling who wanted to call Java a stupid name like Oak.

Diane Greene is an equally neat woman. She is not pushy, doesn't quite look like everyone else, but enough to make one feel comfortable, and she has that look that just screams - I can lead an army of ships into war. She balances out the more behind the scenes personality of her husband, Mendel Rosenblum, co-founder and chief scientist of VMWare.

Bill Gates (please don't throw stones at me for listing Bill Gates as one of those we respect). We for the most part like Bill Gate's and admire him. Both he and Diane Greene are what I shall refer to as anchors. Another rule of social behavior is that people like to hang around anchors. Anchors are those people who have a horned or natural instinct for feeling out what makes their audience comfortable and becoming it. They don't quite dress like their audience, but are not vastly different enough to be scary. They stand out just enough to look different, but not too much. They seem as content being by themselves as they do with being with other people. You only need to look at video of Bill Gates last full day to see what an anchor he is.

A lot of PostgreSQL folk, from a cursory observation, are suffering from some form of geekism and while it is not something that is easy to cure or should be cured - we need to offset it more with at least people who can hide their disorder or highlight those who have it to such a ridiculous level that it serves as a natural parody.

Symptoms of this disorder include

• Preferring to discuss merits of technology approaches and insisting on silence over discussion of the daily weather and other idle banter.
• Telling very obscure jokes and laughing at your own jokes.
• Saying what is on your mind and making criticisms in a matter of fact way without thinking about how it affects other's feelings. Basically lacking social situational awareness.
  e.g.
  That was a really idiotic thing you did. You better have backed up your data or you are probably screwed.
  
  instead of the less harsh
  
  The best way I think to handle that would have been .... Did you make a backup?
  
  Keep in mind quite a few people are obsessed with what other people think and feel and spend a lot of time tailoring their words, gestures, and dress codes to that. They get quickly insulted when they come across someone who seems fairly oblivious to that concern unless that someone can add a lot of comedy to insult.
• Unable to feel or at least look comfortable in anything else but a T-Shirt.
• Uneasiness in non-geek crowds.

MySQL has a pluggable storage architecture

Now this one we wouldn't suggest bothering with, although we should probably dissect this thoroughly to understand better what value people see in this and what substitutions can be made and pointed out that PostgreSQL offers. Granted the camp is divided here. Personally the fact that some things are supported on one MySQL storage engine and not another MySQL storage engine makes MySQL somewhat unpleasant to work with. As Tom mentioned in his The Value of MySQL Storage Engines I suppose there is some charm that we just can't appreciate.