Elephants Ahead!

Matt Asay (the most prolifically correct person writing on open source today) takes a look at PostgreSQL in his posting today (Is it Postgres’ Time to Shine?):

Postgres [could be positioned] to take a bigger share of the enterprise Java database market – not because it’s cheaper than Oracle or more open than MySQL but because it’s a great database in its own right.

Hear hear! But Matt is too kind: PostgreSQL usership will grow strongly over the next couple years and much of the growth will trace directly back to its competitors weakness. MySQL’s continuing community turmoil after the Sun/Oracle acquisition, and Oracle’s continuing pricing problems (in that, they keep going up and up and up, I have yet to meet an Oracle customer who didn’t start our conversation by gasping at ever increasing maintenance costs).

Being an excellent, superior, database is a good start, but having your competitors self-destructing never hurts.