Based on my current project, I would split down the decision as:
1) Is there any know how on administering PostgreSQL or Oracle at your client side?
The human factor is crucial. Databases are often vital and the confidence that you have in dumping/restoring/optimizing/planning deployment is an important factor.
2) Which tools will be used for accessing the database. PostGIS is typically better supported in Open Source tools. You can directly access PostGIS in QGIS, gvSIG, MapServer etc., whereas for Oracle you typically have to recompile (MapServer) or use some plugin (gvSIG), which may not be up to date, etc.
3) Which features do you need. Oracle has some features that might take it apart, among those are: robust topology implementation, routing (pgRouting is the PostGIS-based alternative), raster (will come with PostGIS in some future version), geography (earth as a sphere, instead as a plane, but will be included in the next version of PostGIS, too).
4) Which platform will host your database. If you run some common Linux distro, PostgreSQL/PostGIS is much better integrated and updating is a no minder. For running Oracle you will have to change some kernel parameters, disable SE-Linux and have some "blog" that lives completly outside of your well managed RPM packging. If you use some kind of Ubuntu, Oracle is not certified. On Windows, this is not an issue.
My very personal impression is, that PostgreSQL/PostGIS has fewer features, but does them very well and I find it's SQL implementation more elegant and consistent. Oracle frequently feels like a many-tons-truck, which is ok, if you need a many-tons-truck. But not, if you are fine with a lighter vehicle.
Peter Bruce Foster wrote:
Hi, I'm in middle of making a decision for a client of mine, where I'm inclined to PostGIS. Now to convince the client, I really need to show the value that out weight Oracle Spatial and MS SQL2008. We are not talking cost here, so that option is not considered. I searched for some comparison on net but not much to my delight. So, let me ask the user community and I really hope to get some interesting facts about PostGIS so I can hold to my thesis with the customer. a. Read somewhere on Topology. Hope someone throw more light on this. b. Versioning, which is not available in Postgres On a related note, can we edit directly on PostGIS using MapInfo, ArcGIS Desktop, AutoCad Map3D etc. uDIG, QGIS allow direct connectivity to PostGIS, hope they allow direct file editing too.
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