Oracle vs. PostgreSQL

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I decided to start another thread because the other title is unrelated
to this topic. So basically, I'm learning websiting through seia and
want to build a site like photo.net that can support half a million
users (yes, I know right now my knowledge is not even close to being
able to do that, but one can always hope). So I've been going back and
forth between oracle and postgreSQL...my questions are below:

"PostgreSQL is easy to install and administer, but is not used by
operators of large services because there is no way to build a truly
massive PostgreSQL installation or one that can tolerate hardware
failures."
This is found in the SEIA basics. Is this still applicable now since
it's been a couple years since SEIA was written? In other words, can
postgreSQL back up a RDBMS heavy site like photo.net or scorecard.org?
(both of which are oracle backed)

Also, thanks a lot to the 2 andrews and phil for answering my tcl
question. Andrew P, I read your comment on your opinion of running
PostgreSQL if I don't have any reasons for running Oracle. The reason
I'm considering Oracle is after a lot of browsing around (phil's site,
openacs, and other random sites), it seems like the sites that need
heavy RDBMS support use oracle (ie photo.net & scorecard.org as stated
above). Even if Oracle is harder to set up, if that's the better
choice in the long run, I'd rather learn to set up Oracle than try to
switch from PostgreSQL to Oracle a couple months down the line. As for
the ability to C hack...I can always ask my dad to help out a bit ;)
So...that being said, would you still suggest PostgreSQL?

-- David Lee, February 6, 2006

Answers

Hardware is so much faster and cheap now, I think PostgreSQL should be fine for medium-size sites such as photo.net that make moderate use of the RDBMS on every page. Remember that photo.net was started in 1993. Scorecard is almost ten years old. You shouldn't have to buy software to solve a problem that was adequately solved 10 years ago. See if PostgreSQL works for you and let us know!

[One good thing about Oracle is that if you tackle it successfully, you'll always be able to get a job at a big company somewhere.]

-- Philip Greenspun, February 6, 2006