[vox-tech] oracle -> MySQL conversion

[Michael J Wenk]

On Thu, Apr 29, 2004 at 01:04:26AM -0700, David Hummel wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 07:58:13PM -0700, Michael Wenk wrote:
> > 
> > On Wednesday 28 April 2004 05:29 pm, David Hummel wrote:
> > >
> > > I do agree that the decision should be based on features that you
> > > actually need (and many people aren't aware of what they need).  If
> > > you need rock-solid transactions, triggers, stored procedures,
> > > inheritance, etc., use Postgres.  If your main requirements are
> > > speed and ease of administration, go with MySQL.
> > 
> > I disagree with the admin part.  MySQL is no easier IMO to run than
> > postgres.
> 
> In general, I find that the client and admin tools in MySQL are a
> bit easier to deal with than the equivalent Postgres ones.
> 
> > where you really get the benefit from MySQL is speed.
> 
> Yes, it seems the consensus is that MySQL is faster than Postgres, and
> I've seen it first hand.  But I feel the speed issue is often
> exaggerated and not necessarily true in every situation.  It really
> depends on your schema design, how much data your dealing with, what
> kind of queries you need to do, etc.  I've seen several cases where
> Postgres performed better than MySQL for certain queries, and vice
> versa.
>

Other than saying a bad query is a bad query, I know of no instance where
postgres would outperform mysql, except in the case where mysql doesn't have 
the feature required.  
 
> The point is, make the decision based on the requirements of your
> applications and how they need to interact with the database.  Don't
> dwell too much on the speed issue.  To aid in the decision, you can
> always design portable applications and test them using both systems.
> Portability between MySQL and PostgreSQL is not that difficult to
> accomplish if you're careful.
> 
> > Unless you need triggers or have an app that specifically and totally
> > won't run on anything other than postgres, I would steer clear of it. 
> 
> Although it appears MySQL performs better in a majority of cases, it's a
> bit rash to suggest steering clear of Postgres on the speed issue alone.
> I suggest trying out both systems, which is the ultimate ACID test (pun
> intended).

Oh sure, if you have the time to evaluate a ton of software before making a 
decision, then good.  But if you're trying to to a migration quickly(if their
license agreement with oracle were to end in < a month) then do you really
have the time?  If it were me I wouldn't.  I also would not have asked in the 
first place if I could spend the time on it.