This is a fun topic to jump into -- so I will :)

First off I'm not going to talk about Firebird, mainly because I don't
know enough about firebird to say anything good or bad.

I have however done some research into the big debate of PostgreSQL vs
Mysql. Actually I was starting a project and I asked the same questions
that you are. Why pick one over the other, what if I don't like it, choice
choice choice!

I did some websearching on articles from people benching them against
eachother, explored postgres' and mysql's webpages, and asked some good
[geek] friends. In the end I ended up choosing MySQL 4 stable
(mysql-4.0.13). The reason why I picked it, is because it suited my needs
better, on a different project I may have picked something else.

The one major downfall to MySQL 4.0.13 is there is no subselect. They are
implementing subselects in the 4.1.x series, and truthfully I don't need
them. Everything I can do w/ subselect I can do another way. I even
figured out how to a NOT IN (SELECT) w/ a join. :)

I also found that MySQL was generally faster than Postgres, however
benchmarkers stated that Postgres was much better with handling a higher
load. I talked to a friend who used to work at VA Linux Systems who
mentioned that was why Slashdot was going to migrate to Postgres from
MySQL. This never happened because there have been many improvements in
performance from 3.x to 4.x and Slashdot is (to the best of my knowledge
still running MySQL).

Some other reasons why I went with MySQL are:
+ Transactions have been added with version 4
+ Bigger developer base (internally and external support)
+ I stumbled on a really nice GUI (mysqlcc)

Mysql still is lacking many feature of bigger database like triggers,
views, stored proceedures, etc. Right now I don't need those things so why
bother?

There are many other factors and it took me a few weeks to decide, but
contingency wise I have build a Database object which could support other
databases. That way if I do change databases in the future the upgrade
will be much easier (and so will regression testing).

Anyway, thats my 2.5 cents. Hope my rambling is some what useful.

Cheers,
Mike



-><-

"And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and
space, because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)"
--Larry Wall in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, brett holcomb wrote:

> I'm looking for a database for use on my home systems -
> doesn't have to handle large transactions.  I was planning
> on using PostGRESQL but noticed Firebird and was doing
> some reading on it.  Any pros or cons, experiences of one
> vs the other?
>
> Thanks.
>
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