Hi group. i've been using mysql for almost 8 years now ... and pg for 5 years. Each DB has their own advantages ...
if the person has learnt his database skills on mSQL/MySQL, (Remember MySQL came as faster db compared to that time popular msql) and has not updated himself with the advent of other databases or the same database. Then the software (MySQL or any database) is not the one to blame. I was introduced to MySQL in third year of engineering (When our prof was trying to teach us Oracle as RDBMS). MySQL was the most easiest database to learn/administer and play around that time. (It is still very easy to operate ... so is firebird/pgSQL.) There are times in web applications/other huge applications where Normalisation is not good idea. Or deep level of normalisation is not desired. (This is a separate point of discussion.) so in early days people use to code their applications by assuming the constraints of the DB. And hence the heavy application code. (MySQL did not have relational support/transaction support.) But with the time they have added all the necessary supports and it also satisfies ACID rules. (Tested it with InnoDB Engine) I understand that sometimes you (keneth) might have got into a solution where MySQL was not technically suitable. But thats how we learn things. I've implemented MySQL with opensource BI solution Pentaho and it saved a huge cost of implementing the same with Oracle. (Oracle comes with very weird pricing strategy about CPU based/User Based) Their BI reporting tool like discoverer also needs licensing based on users. So point is its good to have both MySQL as well as PostGRESQL in installfest. after all initially students need to first learn most of the ANSI standard SQL statements. Let student choose whatever they want to after their bit of understanding.
product agnostic is fine - as long as you avoid a product that accepts 2007-2-30 into a date field in the database
:D .... Regards, Ranjeet Walunj -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
