DZone
Java Zone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
  • Refcardz
  • Trend Reports
  • Webinars
  • Zones
  • |
    • Agile
    • AI
    • Big Data
    • Cloud
    • Database
    • DevOps
    • Integration
    • IoT
    • Java
    • Microservices
    • Open Source
    • Performance
    • Security
    • Web Dev
DZone > Java Zone > Oracle Pulls the Rug Out From Under PostgreSQL

Oracle Pulls the Rug Out From Under PostgreSQL

Mitch Pronschinske user avatar by
Mitch Pronschinske
·
Jul. 29, 10 · Java Zone · News
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
21.75K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free
Before the Oracle acquisition, Sun was contributing three servers to the build farm for the PostgreSQL project to test updates and ensure stability on Solaris.  Even though PostgreSQL was technically a competitor to Sun's MySQL, the company still supported development of the project and contributed DTrace support and other features to the platform.  This week, Oracle pulled the plug on those servers with no warning, causing a frantic search for new hosts.  This report first surfaced on the Australian business site, iTNews.

The move by Oracle seemed spiteful based on iTnews' interview with Andrew Dunstan who built the PostgreSQL build farm.  "If they had given us, say, three months warning, I'd have been less peeved," said Dunstan. "It can't have been costing them much - the thing pretty much runs itself, and they can't be short on hardware."  Dunstan said he "suspects" that Oracle does see PostgreSQL as a competitor, not only to their newly acquired MySQL database, but also to their proprietary one, Oracle DB.    Dunstan added however, "We are friendly rivals, not deadly enemies…  I have many friends and acquaintances in the MySQL world."

"Since I have personally been involved in migrating large apps from Oracle to PostgreSQL,  I can understand why they [Oracle] might feel like [competitors]," said Duntan, "but in the open source community, we try to be a bit less dog-eat-dog." 

It's possible that Oracle could be alarmed by the reports of more migrations from Oracle and MySQL to PostgreSQL, especially since the project recently unleashed PostgreSQL 9.0, which has some pretty great features.  EnterpriseDB is the commercial backer for PostgreSQL and a vendor of open core products based on the DB.  They say that monthly downloads of their PostgreSQL migration tool have gone up from 5k in early 2009 to 8k in November 2009.  It's hard to believe that this would be the petty motivation behind Oracle's sudden seizure of the machines.  

Luckily for the PostgreSQL project, EnterpriseDB has stepped forward with the servers to protect the development of their core technology.  Before today, they provided  4 Windows machines for the build farm, and today they stepped in with two Solaris Sparc machines to make up for the lost Oracle iron.  Dave Page, an employee of EnterpriseDB, is working on deploying two additional Solaris Intel machines, and two running Windows 7.  All of the hardware is coming from EnterpriseDB.   

PostgreSQL is used by Yahoo, Skype, MySpace, and many other organizations and independent developers.  
PostgreSQL

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Why Performance Projects Fail
  • How the TypeScript ReturnType Works
  • Suspicious Sortings in Unity, ASP.NET Core, and More
  • How To Use Cluster Mesh for Multi-Region Kubernetes Pod Communication

Comments

Java Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • MVB Program
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends:

DZone.com is powered by 

AnswerHub logo