

MySQL Alternatives to MySQL - zhiping
http://techportal.ibuildings.com/2012/03/15/mysql-alternatives-to-mysql/

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lysol
Here's a cached version: <http://www.postgresql.org/>

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VMG
asking seriously, are there any downsides to using postgresql?

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awj
The out-of-the-box configuration for Postgres has a lot of performance issues
compared to MySQL. I'm not really sure _what_ scenario it's designed for, but
I've always needed to make changes for my use case.

Postgres' query optimizer is a _lot_ smarter than MySQL's. For trivial queries
this is irrelevant, but your queries have to get a lot more complicated before
they'll confuse Postgres relative to MySQL.

Postgres doesn't (that I know of) have multiple storage engines. You don't get
something like MyISAM where you can trade transactional safety for better read
performance. This is both a plus and a minus: you only have one option but
_all_ of the storage engine-related developer time has gone into fixing up
that one option.

If you're experienced with MySQL, Postgres will probably come off as ...
pedantic. Historically it as a project has cared a lot more about data
integrity than MySQL has. That means a lot of the things you could "get away
with" in MySQL aren't allowed. In general this is a good thing, but it also
can get irritating.

In general, Postgres seems to expect you to know/care a lot more about
databases. MySQL is set up so that many use cases work well enough without
tuning it, but the flipside of that situation is that the average community
member probably doesn't know as much about configuring it to get better
performance.

If you're looking to treat your database as a big heap that stores your data
and more or less efficiently regurgitates it (i.e. 90% of web programming's
use of databases) then Postgres is likely going to need too much babying for
the value it provides. If you _actually_ need to deal with very complex
queries and can afford to care deeply about your data, I'd have a hard time
recommending anything else.

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jamroom
I've personally used Percona/XtraDB quite a bit - if you are used to MySQL it
is pretty much a drop-in replacement (i.e. you won't need to rewrite any
queries). One nice feature is the ability to do hot backups without locking
tables, using their XtraBackup:

<http://www.percona.com/software/percona-xtrabackup/>

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polyfractal
TechZing recently had a really great interview with Baron Scwartz from
Percona. A really interesting interview, highly recommended:

[http://techzinglive.com/page/975/172-tz-interview-baron-
schw...](http://techzinglive.com/page/975/172-tz-interview-baron-schwartz-
cutting-edge-mysql)

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Argorak
"Error establishing a database connection". Better find an alternative quick
:).

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simplyinfinity
oh the irony

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mgkimsal
Article loaded fine for me.

It's a pretty good overview of the differences between percona, mariadb and
drizzle, with more on what the focus of each project is, as well as the pros
and cons. Probably nothing many of you didn't know at some level, but nicely
collected in one spot without any major prejudicial comments.

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crusso
That's funny. I just assumed that it was an attempt at a joke since it gave a
DB connection error.

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mwexler
Just my experience, but there are a whole bunch of optimizations one can make
to "official" recent MySQL versions before having to switch platforms, even to
mostly compatible ones as mentioned in the post. Yes, Oracle ownership can be
a reason to switch, but if you don't want to, don't just assume the thing
can't scale til you hit the point of "more hassle than it's worth". Premature
optimization and all that.

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figital
This article fails to mention the licensing problems that caused issues with
MySQL, only that it was "a change in ownership". PostgreSQL has they kind of
license you want to go with ... a large part of it's historical and future
strength(s).

To summarize: Don't use non-permissively-licensed database software, otherwise
you're screwing yourself down the road.

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petsagouris
"Error establishing a database connection" Bad advertizing joke this one.

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prolepunk
Have anyone tried drizzle? It looks like its developers are trying to bring
some of the postgres goals to MySQL codebase. I wonder if anyone has seriously
used the software?

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dlsym
devNullDB

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shimsham
NoDB

